(Jamaica Observer) A major manhunt is now on for a vendor whom police believe ordered the fatal shooting of two sisters in Mona Commons, St Andrew, last Thursday.
The police are also in pursuit of the two men who pulled the trigger, amid reports that they are from the section of August Town known as African Gardens.
The two sisters, 31-year-old Shauna-Kay “Tiffany” Hunter and 23-year-old Raenae “Tassy” Martell, were fatally shot metres from their gate in the tight squatter community, in what investigators now believe was a bloody end to a minor dispute.
According to Jamaica Observer sources, days after the September 3 General Election the two sisters were sitting outside their gate when a political argument developed with a man who operates a stall in the community which is directly across from the main entrance to the University Hospital of the West Indies.
The sources say the argument became increasingly bitter until the man pulled a knife and advanced threateningly towards Martell.
At that point her sister intervened and, according to an Observer source, “Di two sisters dem beat him properly in front of him woman”, who was allegedly the one “pushing the argument”.
The source said the man, who has links to known thugs, vowed revenge as he left the scene.
It is believed that Thursday afternoon’s shooting incident, while the sisters and their friends celebrated Martell’s birthday, is connected to that threat.
According to the police investigators, about 2:15 Thursday afternoon, men drove to the scene on two motorbikes and the pillion riders quickly jumped off and ordered the people not to move.
One of the men pulled a firearm and opened fire hitting Martell in her chest. She ran into her yard but was chased by the gunman, who continued shooting even while she held her one-year-old baby in her arms.
While that gunman was targeting Martell, the other one chased her sister Hunter into a nearby lane firing repeatedly until she fell on the road with multiple gunshot wounds.
The shooters then left aboard the two bikes, whose drivers had kept the engines running.
They reportedly fired two shots in the air without targeting anyone as they made their escape.
The two sisters were pronounced dead on the scene.
Last Friday, 51-year-old Loreen Powell, the mother of the two slain women, told the Observer that her only children had been killed leaving their four children behind. Martell left the one-year-old she had in her arms when she was shot, a four-year-old, and a six-year-old. Her sister has left behind an eight-year-old son.
“Mi weak! Mi weak! Dem left me with four grandchildren, but me will take care of them. God will give me the strength. Why dem couldn’t kill me instead? At least one of them should beside me now to help me mourn,” declared Powell.
“Judgement! Judgement! But mi leave dem to God,” added Powell as she consoled another grieving relative.
