No mercy for suspected goat thieves

Following Thursday's suspected vigilante killing of two alleged goat thieves in Adelphi in St James, farmers said persons involved in praedial larceny should use the incident as a warning not to target the community.

The deceased have been identified as Alex Ontonio Green, of Charlie Drive in Porto Bello, and Dwight Campbell, both of St James.

"Them get what them deserve, and this will send a strong warning to all a them thief who a come inna wi community a come tek weh wi animal them," an angry goat farmer told THE WEEKEND STAR. The farmer said that he recently lost four goats to thieves.

"I don't sorry fi no animal thief. Them come a thief wi goat them, and when a nuh wi goat, is wi cow them. A what them hear seh? Well mek this be a strong warning to anybody who believe that them can just come inna Adelphi and thief wi animal them."

Reports by the police are that about 5 a.m., gunshots were heard coming from a section of the community, and about two hours later, residents stumbled upon the bodies of the two men and summoned the police. On the arrival of the police, one of the men was seen lying along a roadway with what appeared to be gunshot and chop wounds. The other body, which also had gunshot wounds, was discovered slumped around the steering wheel of a crashed Toyota Noah bus. It is also reported that several goats which were believed to have been stolen by the men from a nearby farm, were also recovered from the location. The scene was processed and the bodies removed to the morgue for post mortem.

THE WEEKEND STAR spoke to Deputy Superintendent in Charge of Operation for St James, Eron Samuels.

"What we have gathered so far is that these men seem to have been here to steal goats," Samuels said. "We are still investigating, and we are not sure as yet in terms of where this leads, so we just crave the understanding of persons as we conduct our investigations."

Samuels also appealed to members of the public not to take matters into their own hands when it comes to persons caught carrying out acts of praedial larceny.