Whitehall bar attack leaves two dead
Published:Monday | February 3, 2025 | 4:57 PMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
A visitor to Jamaica is among two men who were killed in a brazen gun attack and robbery at a bar on Cameron Lane in Whitehall, St Andrew, yesterday.
Another man was also shot and injured, about 3 p.m., when three men with guns in hand exited a motor car and started firing at the group.
An eyewitness told The Gleaner that the men were travelling in a car with red plates.
“The car pass and come back and dem come out and start fire di shot dem. Di man dem weh dead did inside the bar a have a drink,” a resident said.
“When di shot dem a fire, one of dem a ask the other one if him get the bag. That is the bag that the foreigner youth had. Him a say, ‘Yuh get the bag? Yuh get the bag?’, and dem jump inna di car and drive away,” another resident said.
The men were unidentified up to press time.
The Whitehall Avenue area has been tense in the days leading up to Wednesday’s double murder and shooting.
The police had imposed a 48-hour curfew along Whitehall Avenue and Mannings Hill Road in the Kingston 8 community, which ended Sunday at 6 p.m.
Acting Superintendent of Police Randy Sweeney, head of the St Andrew North Police Division, said that although a robbery occurred and could be a motive, the police would be looking at all possible motives.
Past attacks
The bar has been the subject of similar attacks in the past.
On February 1, 2020, a retired policeman who operated the establishment then survived after he was shot 10 times by hoodlums who fired on him.
A few days later, on February 19, two men were killed in the proximity of the bar.
David Anthony Johnson, 19, and 20-year-old carpenter Shamarie Anderson were gunned down by men who again invaded the space.
“Is like every time there is a shooting or murder on this side over Cameron Lane, a right deh so it happen,” a resident told The Gleaner.
The police said that for some time, there was no tension in the Cameron Lane space, and so the recent security measure was not focused there.
As at January 25, the St Andrew North Division recorded three murders since the start of the year.
This, however, is just two more than the one recorded during the similar period in 2024.
There were seven reports of shootings in the division since the start of the year.