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COMMANDING officer for the St Mary Police Division Superintendent Bobette Morgan-Simpson says yesterday's gun attack in Enfield, which claimed the lives of three men and left four other people nursing injuries, may have been a reprisal shooting.
Two of the deceased have been identified as 19-year-old Donald Westcart, and 23-year-old Deshanti Dunkley, both of a Stony Hill in St Andrew. The third has been identified only as Kenneth.
Morgan-Simpson told the Jamaica Observer that Westcart, otherwise called 'Twin' or 'Coolie,' may have been the main target of the attack.
“We have no information that it was gang-related, but it could be a reprisal. Donald Wescart has been fingered in more than one murder and has been reporting on condition of bail for murder to the Annotto Bay Police Station. So, we don't know. It could be, but we can't say gang-related,” she said.
The constabulary's Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) reported that about 11:45am, “four men went to a premises and opened gunfire, hitting seven people, including Westcart's mother and father”.
The four injured individuals were taken to the hospital, with one in critical condition.
Westcart, police say, was linked to the murder of three youngsters in Stony Hill, St Andrew, on Wednesday, August 4, and two other murders in the area.
He was arrested during a joint divisional operation in Enfield, St Mary, on February 14, 2020.
Wescart and Dunkley, otherwise called 'Chucky', were later charged with murder and wounding with intent for the use of a firearm on February 25. The charges followed the murder of Shamari Horace Waul on February 12, and a related shooting in Stony Hill Square in St Andrew.
According to the St Andrew North Police, Waul was on his way to work when he was pounced upon by armed men, who shot him several times. He was pronounced dead on the scene. A motorist who was driving his daughter to school, and bystanders were also injured.
An elderly man who lives in Enfield, Juno Pen, St Mary, told the Observer that the community has been very tense since the shooting occurred.
“Most persons believe that it was a targeted killing… it is not a random killing. People from outside the community came to do the shooting,” he said.
The resident said he wouldn't be surprised if a reprisal follows in the near future.
“This place is not a bad one, but there are quite a few young men in the area who are real idlers and at times you would hear gunshots firing. My concern is that you might have further killings relating to the incident,” he continued.
Another resident said: “It is not over. More will come. Most of these young boys also involved in scamming, so their people will come for what is theirs. That is all me have to say.”
Back in May, commanding officer of the St Andrew North Police Division Superintendent Aaron Fletcher lamented that proper policing was being hampered as criminals were largely undetectable because of a long-existing issue of “migrating and transient” criminals, going across borders.
The man from St James will take a man from St Andrew North who will do a shooting or murder or robbery and then the favour is returned. And then they cannot be so easily identified because sometimes the police just get a description. And so, some purveyors of a criminal act will never be identified because they are unknown to the persons in the community,” Fletcher said.
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