Mother and son shot dead

Following another double murder in the Granville Division in St James, councillor Michael Troupe has called on the Government for immediate intervention.

Troupe's appeal comes following the shooting death of 43-year-old shopkeeper Shellyann Shaw and her four-year-old son Jemar Powell. They were shot in a section of the community known as Top Hill, sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning.

"This is no longer a little incident, this is war, straight out war. When you reach a stage where we are killing babies, it bad, real bad," he said.

Troupe said that 11 persons have been murdered in his division over the past three months. THE STAR has learnt that Shaw had to run from her shop when it was shot up last Thursday. A relative was shot and injured. In the fatal attack, the police reported that Shaw, Jemar, and Shaw's common-law-husband were at home, when men armed with high-powered rifles went into their yard and sprayed their board dwelling with bullets. Shaw and Jemar received gunshot wounds to their upper bodies and were rushed to hospital by a taxi operator in the community. Further reports are that the gunmen also burnt the taxi operator's home to the ground.

Shaw and Jemar succumbed to their injuries while being treated at the Cornwall Regional Hospital. The St James police say this latest attack may have been a reprisal for another double murde in Granville last Tuesday. There have been 92 murders in St James.