(Jamaica Observer) TEN minutes after Shontoll McCarthy’s relatives were awakened by loud explosions in their community, her five-year-old son’s frantic banging on their front door marked the beginning of a nightmare that is still unfolding.
When they opened the door, the child, who was wearing a blood-soaked, blue merino, related: “Dem shot up mi mother and she dead, and dem shot me too.”
The partially clothed five-year-old, who had discarded his blood-soaked underpants was also complaining about a burning feeling between his legs where he had been shot.
According to the relatives, the boy, who is now an orphan, ran from his Nelson Street home to the end of Benbow Street, Jones Town in Kingston, at minutes after 1:00 am yesterday.
“Him run come down here breathless, all the police them a say, ‘Oh God, him really brave’. Him run come ’cause nobody never deh pon di road, not even dog, ’cause dem did kill one man in a di day so di road did dead,” one of his relatives told the Jamaica Observer.
The distraught relative, who was trying to fathom why gunmen would invade her 27-year-old niece’s home and spray her with bullets, was perturbed by the killing.
“Her mother died from she small. The babyfather (son’s father) died when the baby was three months old, and now she [has died],” the relative lamented.
When the Observer visited the tough inner-city community yesterday, police and soldiers were seen patrolling the area.
Another of McCarthy’s relatives who had accompanied the child to hospital told the Observer yesterday that the child, who was initially taken to Kingston Public Hospital, was transferred to Bustamante Hospital for Children where he’s recuperating in stable condition.
Head of the constabulary’s Corporate Communications Unit, Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, said the police were summoned to the area by residents about 1:10 am. Lindsay said when the police arrived at McCarthy’s house, she was found with multiple gunshot wounds. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The senior superintendent also confirmed the shooting incident mentioned by McCarthy’s relative, which took place on Sunday evening.
In that incident, Ryan Smith, 38, a resident of Crooks Street in the community, was shot dead about 3:15 pm.
Smith, a construction worker, was reportedly inside a yard on Benbow Street when gunmen shot him several times before escaping.