(The Gleaner) – A shooting on Friday evening has left a supermarket owner and another man dead in Porus, Manchester, Jamaica. Dead are Jin Siam Ye, one of the co-owners of the business, and Alphonso Cohen, who hailed from the Berrydale community.
Reports from the Manchester Police are that at about 7:30 p.m., a group of men travelling in a Toyota Mark X motor car entered the supermarket and robbed its owner and customers.
They reportedly opened gunfire at their victims before fleeing the scene.
The police were summoned and the injured persons taken to hospital.
At least two of the alleged shooters were nabbed shortly.
Porus Councillor Morant Baker said the supermarket plays a major role in the life of the area. “I know that the supermarket owner employs many persons and they have been benefiting from him being there,” she said. She also lamented that some young persons are unwilling to work and are just seeking ‘easy money’.
“I say to young people, go and get a job; stop the easy money-making and stop destroying people’s lives. People are willing to work for a honest living, why are you snatching their lives from them?” the political representative said.
Michael Stern, a senior leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party for Clarendon, Manchester and St Ann, said the men lost their lives to the heartless criminals.
“I want to also give thanks to the police on their quick interception of these criminals and the discovery of the firearms and also without their quick actions we would not be able to hold on to those criminals who committed the crime,” he shared.
He said Manchester has been under attack from a series of robberies.
