There was a double murder in a section of Southside in Central Kingston on Tuesday, triggering fears that there will be deadly reprisal soon in the community.
One of the deceased has been identified as a 52-year-old woman, Orthia Lettman, and the other a 30-year-old man identified only as ‘Bigga’.
Reports are shortly before 10 am on Tuesday, armed men approached a shop on Barry Street, between Foster Lane and High Holborn Street in the community. The men reportedly opened fire, hitting three persons.
Bigga reportedly died at the scene, while Lettman, who was affectionately called ‘P’, was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police reports said a 36-year-old woman was also shot and injured.
Residents of the inner-city community believe the double murder was a reprisal for a murder several weeks ago. Tensions have been high in the Parade Gardens community in recent months, with reports of an ongoing turf war there.
Last year, in September, 26-year-old Ras-Amigo McDonald, a labourer of Fleet Street in the community, was killed by armed men who then escaped in a waiting motor vehicle.
Hours later, in what is believed to have been a reprisal for McDonald’s killing, gunmen attacked 26-year-old Dwayne Dunbar, otherwise called ‘Killa’, and a 21-year-old woman, at the intersection of Barry Street and Maiden Lane. Both were killed.
Six months later, residents of sections of Southside are still cowering in fear, as the feud has seen gangsters targeting their opponents in a deadly game of tit-for-tat.
There have been 17 murders so far, representing an 89 per cent increase in the number of homicides committed in the Kingston Central Police Division, when compared with the corresponding period last year.
