Curfew fails to stop St Catherine murders

Two women killed, one hospitalised

Forewarned that an internal dispute in the notorious Clansman gang could erupt into a bloodbath, the security forces yesterday blanketed sections of Spanish Town, St Catherine. But that was not enough to stop the killers from striking again.

With the murder count from the internal feud already at six - five in Portmore and one in Spanish Town - the police announced curfews in three well-known strongholds of the gang.

De La Vega City, March Pen Road and Dallas Lane were all placed under 48-hour curfews starting at 6 Monday evening and scheduled to remain in place until 6 this evening.

But the gunmen moved their attacks to an area known as 'Africa', near March Pen Road, turning their guns on three women.

When the shooting ended, 44-year-old Erica Simmonds and her 23-year-old daughter Peta-gaye Bunda, otherwise called 'Queenie', were both dead, while the third woman was hospitalised with gunshot wounds.

Reports are that about 11 o'clock yesterday morning, the women were sitting in a lane in Africa when they were attacked by men on foot who brandished guns and started firing.

Must have known something

Residents later claimed that Bunda had a relationship with Jermaine 'Speedy' Morrison, the alleged ranking member of the Clansman gang who had been killed in Spanish Town on Monday.

"The two women were related to Morrison and may have seen or known something," a senior police investigator theorised.

The shooting yesterday was enough to prompt some residents of Africa to pack whatever they could and move out.

"See it deh. Some a di family dem affi move out as it look very serious fi dem. It sticky from yesterday when dem kill Speedy. It rough," one resident told The Gleaner.

The police believe Speedy was implicated in last Thursday's shooting of five persons, including another ranking member of the Clansman gang in Portsmouth, Portmore, St Catherine.

Two alleged members of the gang, Nevardo Hodges, otherwise called 'Dee Jay', and Rowell Jennings, better known as 'Jay Jay', are being sought by the police for questioning in connection with Speedy's killing.

With anxious residents in Spanish Town and Portmore expressing fear that the battle to control the Clansman gang could lead to more killings, The Gleaner tried unsuccessfully to get details from the police on what measures would be put in place to capture the criminals.

Late yesterday, efforts to contact Senior Superintendent Anthony Castelle, the head of the St Catherine North Police, and Assistant Commissioner Novelette Grant, who heads the police Area Five, were unsuccessful.