(Jamaica Observer) The police have stepped up patrols in New Haven, St Andrew, where five people were shot — three fatally — in a brazen attack by gunmen in the community Tuesday night.
The dead are 18-year-old Cleveland Gayle; Kyle Poyscr, 16; and another man identified only as Chris, whose age has not yet been ascertained.
According to the police, about 10:45 the five were among a group of people standing on the road in the community when a car drove up. Several armed men alighted from the vehicle and opened fire hitting them.
Residents said that the injured men tried to escape, but were cornered and peppered with bullets by another set of gunmen who were waylaying them at another section of the community.
The wounded men were rushed to hospital where Gayle, Poyscr and Chris were pronounced dead. The others have been admitted in hospital in serious condition.
On Wednesday, police said they suspected that the shooting was linked to gang feud in the area. However, they said that based on their information, four of the victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Information we received is that the shooting may be linked to a missing firearm,” Deputy Superintendent Aaron Fletcher from Hunt’s Bay Police Station told the Jamaica Observer.
Wednesday’s increased police presence did little to calm the anger and shock that gripped the community, where many residents wept openly.
Horace Poyscr, father of the slain 16-year-old, was overcome with grief.
“Mi can’t believe mi one and only son come lose him life like that,” said the distraught father, who had to be consoled by friends.
A few metres away from where the senior Poyscr wept, Donna Thorpe, Gayle’s mother, was still in shock.
“My son never trouble people; he was always by himself. He always tried to go to his little work whenever he had something doing and come home,” said the mother.
