Fri | Sep 5, 2025

UPDATE | 48-hour curfews in Spanish Town communities rocked by One Order feud

Published:Tuesday | June 14, 2022 | 11:58 PM
Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson speaking in Spanish Town, St Catherine following a series of deadly shootings in the parish capital on June 14, 2022. Beside him was Senior Superintendent Howard Chambers who heads the St Catherine North Police Division.

The police have imposed 48-hour curfews in some communities in Spanish Town, St Catherine, to thwart a spread of the deadly violence that gripped sections of Spanish Town in St Catherine this evening.

Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson gave the update following a visit to the Old Capital, hours after three men were killed in incidents the police say were linked to an internal feud in the One Order Gang that is based in the parish. 

Tawes Pen, Job Lane, 31 St John's Road and Railway Lane will be under curfew for the next two days. 

"We'll settle it. We're in the space," said Anderson, noting that the shootings were "part of the ongoing violence" that's driven by gang feuds involving players from the communities now under curfew. Four persons were shot dead in Tawes Pen earlier this month, and weeks before four were shot, two fatally, on St John's Road. 

"These guys have high-powered weapons and are not afraid to use them on each other," the commissioner said.  

Anderson says a variety of operational activities are underway to boost the security of the areas and apprehend the gunmen. Additional personnel have also been assigned to the St Catherine North Police, the division in which Spanish Town falls. 

Meanwhile, files at the administrative building of the St Catherine Parish Court were not damaged by a fire whose cause is still not known, the commissioner said. 

The fire was contained to the roof. 

Cases that were scheduled for tomorrow will go ahead as planned.  

Senior Parish Court Judge Tracy Ann Johnson visited the building that's located in the historic Emancipation Square where the St Catherine Municipal Corporation headquarters is also based.  

A heavy police and military presence blanketed some of the areas of the town including French and William Streets, Job Lane and Cumberland Road where the shooting incidents took place. 

One of the men killed was shot by the police after he allegedly sought to challenged cops who tried to accost him at car wash at the intersection of William and French streets. 

The man was reportedly among a group fleeing in a car from the site of the first shooting on Cumberland Road, near the market district. 

They reportedly shot three men, one of whom died. 

Senior Superintendent of Police Stephanie Lindsay said after hearing of the Cumberland killing, another group of gangsters visited a location on Job Lane where they shot and killed a man. 

An unknown number of persons have been hospitalised. 

Residents, vendors and shoppers were sent scurrying while businesses closed their doors as gunmen attacked persons in the market district. 

Residents of Tawes Pen also blocked roads to protest the shootings. 

Meanwhile, the Police Commissioner said Damaine Elliston, who was freed last month at the Clansman-One Don Gang trial, may be connected to today's upsurge in violence. 

He was apprehended in Spanish Town today in connection with the murder of alleged gang member Paul White who was killed on Saturday. Two guns were also recovered. 

Clansman is the other major criminal organisation that operates out of St Catherine, the police say. 

The One Don group is faction of the gang. 

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