Man shot dead at school gate

The Morgan's Bridge police in Westmoreland have launched an investigation after armed thugs shot and killed a man outside the Grange Hill Basic School compound yesterday morning.

The deceased has been identified as 26-year-old Jervain Lue, otherwise called 'Jetnakne', a carpenter of Patrick Drive and Top Lincoln in Grange Hill. Reports are that Lue rode his motorcycle to the school compound shortly after 8 a.m., and dropped off a woman and a student. He was leaving when he was intercepted by two men travelling on a motorcycle, who opened gunfire hitting him multiple times. He was assisted to the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The shooting left a number of parents and students traumatised. The school was closed for the remainder of the day.

"I was walking with my little daughter towards the school gate when I heard the gunshots, and when I look I see one man running with a gun in him hand, so I took up my child and run," a parent said. A man said he was working close to the school when he heard the loud explosions, but he thought the sounds were from a motorcycle muffler.

"Mi just hear wen the shot dem fire an hear wen the girl run out an sey, 'God know, dem kill him, dem kill him'," Brown said. "When mi tek a stop and go out deh suh, mi tan up pon di banking an a look an mi see seh him lie dung pon the bike, an mi see sey di girl hug him up inna di road an a bawl."

Sixteen persons have been murdered across Westmoreland so far this year.