Former cop wants changes after four killings in 48 hours

With four more murders in the 48 hours spanning Tuesday and Wednesday, there is now growing fears that the Jamaica Constabulary Force's (JCF) efforts to rein in gangsters in the west is not getting the desire results, leaving law-abiding citizens worried.

"It pains my heart to see what is happening, because our law-abiding citizens don't deserve to be living under the mayhem we are seeing," a former top-flight police crime-fighter told THE WEEKEND STAR, as he bemoaned the recent spate of bloodletting across St James, Trelawny, Westmoreland, Hanover, and St Elizabeth.

The former crime-fighter, who had asked not to be identified, says he wants Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake to establish a branch of the JCF's specialised operation unit, which was promised to the west by a former commissioner.

"We can't afford to go back to the years when St James was having 300-plus murders, and Westmoreland was having 100-plus murders. The region deserves better," the person said.

The first of the four murders took place in Green Island, Hanover, on Tuesday about 8 a.m., when 21-year-old Timoy 'Tim Tim' Morris, of the volatile Logwood community, was shot and killed by unknown assailants inside a shop where he had gone to make a purchase. Later on Tuesday, St Elizabeth joined the bloodletting mix at approximately 9 p.m., when a man identified as 'Tutu' was among five persons inside at shop in Elim, Balaclava, when two men armed with handguns walked in and open fire on him, killing him on the spot.

On Wednesday, St James, which has rolled by on the JCF's radar as a hotbed of murders, recorded two murders. In the first incident, which occurred in the Mt Salem police area, an unidentified man was shot and killed in the Farm Hill area at approximately 5:30 a.m. by unknown assailants. In the second incident, which occurred at Dacatone Square in Norwood, about 11:13 p.m. three men and a woman were walking along the roadway when unknown assailants opened gunfire on them. All four were hit. One of the men, whose identity has not been released, subsequently died from his injuries.

There were other incidences of shooting across the region, resulting in the injury of several persons.