1-y-o, dad injured in deadly gun attack
Published:Tuesday | February 16, 2021 | 12:13 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Residents of a section of Spanish Town in St Catherine are now fearful after a deadly gun attack on Sunday night that left one man dead and another injured as well as his one-year-old daughter.
The residents of Letterbox Lane, a part of 41 Featherbed Lane, said they are still uncertain about what caused the attack, which lasted for more than 10 minutes.
Twenty-three-year-old Andrew Thomas, of an Ensom City address in Spanish Town, was shot dead, and a 38-year-old man and his one-year-old daughter were injured in the shooting. They were treated at the Spanish Town Hospital and discharged.
Yesterday, evidence of the shooting was visible more than 300 metres from the house where Thomas was killed, where flying bullets extensively damaged two trucks and a Toyota Wish motor car parked along the roadway.
Thomas’ 41-year-old mother, June Powell, who lives some 200 metres from where her son was killed, told The Gleaner that she was now fearful, not knowing the motive for her son’s murder.
“The last time I saw my son was just after 2 p.m. Sunday. He had come over to spend the weekend, and now I won’t see him again,” Powell said as she cried.
“It was about 9 o’clock when I hear a whole heap of shots. I was concerned when I found out TJ – as we call him – was not in his room,” she continued.
Powell said that when she called her son’s girlfriend, who lived nearby, she told him that Thomas had been killed.
“He is a loving son who takes care of his family, especially his four-year-old son. He just came to look for me and was supposed to go back home Monday morning,” she said, adding that her son was a jovial person who always brought her gifts on her birthday, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day.
High-powered weapons
The police, who are still trying to determine the motive for the shooting, disclosed that men armed with high-powered weapons carried out the attack at about 9:18 p.m. on Sunday.
They said that the men were chasing Thomas and held him as he sought refuge in a house. He was dragged outside and shot several times.
The police further reported that during the shooting, shots penetrated the wooden structure of the building and injured the man and his infant daughter inside.
When the police were summoned, they found the men, who engaged them in a running gun battle before escaping into bushes.
Alleged eyewitnesses told The Gleaner, however, that the gunmen came from the nearby bushes, wearing police vests, and shouted, “Police!” before they started firing at the house.
They say that Thomas, who was sitting on the porch with some other men drinking, ran into the bathroom while the others ran up the lane. The gunmen reportedly dragged Thomas from the bathroom and shot him on the porch, injuring the man and the infant in the process.