A taxi operator was shot and killed by unknown assailants at the intersection of Duhaney Drive and Washington Boulevard in St Andrew on Saturday, relatively close to where another cabbie was recently killed.
Dead is 25-year-old Oshane McLennon, otherwise called ‘Landlord’ or ‘Tyrek’, of Majestic Gardens in St Andrew.
Reports are that about 1.10 pm, McLennon parked his Nissan Sunny motorcar on Washington Boulevard, where it is alleged that men aboard motorbikes drove up and brandished handguns.
Further reports are that McLennon ran onto Duhaney Drive, but was chased and shot in the head and other sections of the upper body.
The attackers subsequently made good their escape.
The killing is said to have triggered some amount of tension in and around the area where it occurred, due to the recent stabbing death there involving another taxi driver.
But since the incident, the police say they have stepped up their investigations into the matter, and are also refuting any claim that the attack was linked to the recent killing of a Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) worker on Oxford Road in New Kingston.
“We have no information that there is any link, and would want to say to persons out there who are seeking to spread rumours, to desist from doing so and allow the police to do their work,” said a senior police officer, who asked not to be named.
Sources are also claiming that the shooting of McLennon may be linked to an ongoing feud in sections of downtown Kingston.
Two weeks ago, JUTC driver, 34-year-old Mikkel Donaldson, otherwise called ‘Biggs’, of Bull Bay in St Andrew, was shot dead while tending to a disabled bus in New Kingston.
According to the Half-Way Tree police, about 10.24 pm, Donaldson was dispatched to Oxford Road, where it was reported that a JUTC bus had developed mechanical problems.
It is alleged that while he waited at the location, he was pounced upon by gunmen and shot several times.
He was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Several hours earlier, 37-year-old Akeeno Britton, otherwise called ‘Bubinile’, a taxi driver of Ambrook Lane, St Andrew, who plied the Duhaney Park to Half-Way Tree route, was fatally stabbed close to the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Patrick Drive in St Andrew.
Reports are that about 8pm, the taxi operator was driving along Washington Boulevard, when he got into a heated argument with another man who was employed to the JUTC.
That alleged encounter ended with Britton being stabbed and later succumbing to his injuries.
The JUTC employee in question, has since been arrested.
The two fatal attacks initially, not only triggered tensions in the Corporate Area, but also led to JUTC drivers withdrawing their services, a move which crippled the public transportation system across the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) for two days.
A number of meetings have since been held with the Police High Command and stakeholders of the JUTC and a number of public transport operator groups in an effort to bring an end to the then brewing security concerns.
