Determined to keep the peace

KENNETH WILSON, president of the August Town Sports & Community Development Foundation, and Horace Levy, of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), said the residents of August Town are resolute that nothing will unhinge the peace the community has been working hard to maintain for the past three years.

Thirty-seven-year-old Gary Smith, also known as 'Bobby' or 'Druggist', a mason of Bedward Gardens in August Town, St Andrew, was beheaded Saturday morning.

Not local people

"From what we hear, it is not local people that are involved in this. They are simply the victims of an outside gang. I don't think this will have any negative impact on what we have been able to achieve or set us back in any way," said Levy.

Wilson added, "What took place was in the hilly section of Bedward Gardens in greater August Town, but the media is placing a lot of emphasis on August Town in general. The residents are upset because of the impression it gives. The perpetrators are not from August Town, and we want to make that clear."

The residents of August Town rescued their community from the brink of hell in 2008, when severe violence and bloodshed threatened to tear it apart and had everyone living in fear. The ruling factions from the five districts came together and signed the Greater August Town Peace Agreement, which they have maintained. Several organisations have since stepped in to reform the community, implementing a number of programmes.

Within the first six months of the agreement, murders were reduced from 12 to five and shootings from 13 to three. This is the second murder the police are reporting since the beginning of 2011.

The police said they have already apprehended persons in connection with Smith's beheading. The Major Investigations Task Force is appealing for the public's assistance in finding other persons believed to have been involved.

The police report that just after midnight on Saturday, several men armed with guns and machete entered Smith's home and yanked him out of the house, away from his two children.

Tied up and dragged

He was tied up and dragged along a dirt track up into the nearby hills. The police say residents reported hearing him begging for his life before several gunshots rung out.

His headless body was later found with a gunshot wound to the leg. The police are yet to locate the head.

Smith was said to be working at a nearby housing complex as a small contractor.