Residents terrified after 3 hit in morning drive-by shooting
Published:Tuesday | April 23, 2024 | 12:12 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Bloodstains along the roadway, abandoned footwear, and spent casings strewn around were telltale signs of the terror that gripped Burnt Shop Square in Lawrence Tavern on Monday morning and left three men admitted in critical condition in hospital.
The daring drive-by shooting, which reportedly took place shortly after 8 a.m., cast a pall of gloom over the usually quiet farming district, mere days after a teacher had survived a gun attack at her home, not too far from yesterday’s bloody scene.
“Mi think a old age and dem something deh would kill people around here, but it nuh look so. A weh shooting, shooting come from all of a sudden ‘round a Burnt Shop?” one female resident pondered.
As The Gleaner made its way to the scene, a car with hazard lights on sped past, heading in the opposite direction, with feet hanging from the rear window.
On reaching the now-crowded scene, residents said that a passing motorist had made a frantic dash for the hospital with one of the injured men while the police assisted the other two.
“We only hope dem make it because dem get shot up bad. Hand broken, man get shot in a dem back, side and belly ... . We try to help them and it look away when dem couldn’t move with them right away because who nuh have gas in a dem car to who just in shock,” a resident told The Gleaner.
There were no early indications as to whether Monday’s attack had any relation with a shooting incident on April 14, where an educator was shot during a home attack.
The Gleaner gathered that the injured men in the latest incident are elderly residents and that two appear to be relatives.
“I was at my house over the hill there getting ready and I hear the popping sound – Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! – and when I listened again I heard the car speeding away and then the screaming and wailing started,” one resident said.
As news of the tragedy spread, the crowd grew so large at the scene that they had to be periodically dispersed and kept at bay by the police investigators.
There was a tense atmosphere as speculations ran wild as to who could have colluded with the gunmen to carry out such an attack.
“Day don’t even light good yet. If dem dead or make it, Burnt Shop won’t be the same,” one woman said, adding that she warned one of the injured men not to loiter in the area.
Up to press time, the injured men were still at a Corporate Area hospital.
A senior policeman told The Gleaner that the security forces will have to ramp up surveillance in the community as Monday’s shootings could have serious implications for the preservation of peace and livelihood in the area.
The St Andrew North Criminal Investigation Branch is probing the shooting.
As at April 20, this division had recorded a 28 per cent increase in shootings with 23 incidents. This is five more than the corresponding period in 2023.
As it relates to injured persons, the division had a slight increase of four more persons year-on-year, from 14 to 18 for the period under review.
There was a 19 per cent difference in murders, with 13 so far this year compared to 16 in 2023.
The national murder toll stands at 332.