welcome back to primetime news and a special welcome once again if you're watching online
at onespotmedia.com up first this evening the past weekend has been a bloody one gunman on
rampage across the island snuffed out 25 lives to stem the tide the police have so far implemented
a curfew in sections of clarendon while the national security minister dr harris chang
is promising new strategies to fight crime we have the details of the events giving the
security forces a headache over the weekend and the responses so far we begin with anthony logg
giving a roundup the weekend was a bloody one and members of the security forces were kept busy
gunmen carried out several attacks across the island killing 25 people between friday and sunday
this includes a trip of murder in almantone kingston another trip of murder and saint james
and a double murder in olympic way saint anthro in almantone gunmen pounced upon a group of men
playing dominoes on prince of wales street and sprayed bullets five people were shot on sunday
evening a crowd was gathered for a football match and an illegal party in quarry st james sometime
after 6 pm men traveling in a white toyota vacci opened gunfire at the crowd injuring seven people
three were pronounced dead at hospital they have been identified as 77 year old estriano wilson
29 year old music producer chevy and mcpherson and 47 year old dwight mccallum the son of
astriana wilson spoke with our news team that's not missing this lawsuit let's go get all the han
gone the man suspected to be the driver of the getaway vehicle was later found with a
bullet wound investigators theorized that he was accidentally shot by his cronies
the killings have led to renewed calls from residents for the government's intervention
following a tour of quarry and norwood st james on monday national security minister
dr harish chang said new strategies will be implemented to address the killings
the police intends to increase the activity we're not deterred by these kind of business
we increase the curfew on coordinates we increase the curfews and in addition to that the special
operation moving out it's understood that the security forces have been active in several
communities in the parish the residents welcomed this but called for more targeted operations to
rid the communities of those involved in the attacks dr chang says the special operations
unit of the jamaica constabulary force would be deployed in response to the murders we have
developed fugitive apprehension teams which is smaller groups which target high value of targets
and they are supported by the special op teams so once they're identified and their location
can be clearly um you know unknown they'll be apprehended and prosecuted anthony logg
tvj news we go to a prime primetime news follow-up now the kingston western police have so far
managed to prevent planned reprisals for recent gun murders in trench town
but as kirk reichner reports the gunmen are still actively driving residents out of the area
sharon coley of trench town in san jose lives here on 5th street and operated a small shop nearby
today she and her daughter and some close family members left home because it's becoming
too risky to stay and even while waiting for her things to be picked up
miss coley had to be keeping an eye out for danger we asked why
the woman cynthia robinson and i'm saminex and natalie next added to that miss coley says
she's been targeted because her relatives are a part of a gang war in trench town that's claimed
several lives including that of cynthia robinson two saturdays ago
and another man days before that mrs coley says hours before they killed cynthia robinson they
also attempted to kill her but she managed to escape from the yard with her children when would
whenever time anything occurred with anybody who data ending up in the community it come down
us family you understand so when i look
we have to end up going what we have seen is that there are some persons
who are connected to people who are very integral in the violence within the community and they know
within themselves that it's best for them based on their own roles to really leave the community
because they are at high risk they prefer not to share the information with the police but we are
still trying to reach out to them so far several persons mainly women have had to flee the area
some were threatened and others left because of their association to people in the ongoing
conflict miss cauley says the police presence is not effective but the police have another view of
things we believe that the police present within the community has been impactful we have at least
arrested one of the main perpetrators of the violence we have seen where others are turning
themselves into the police to be interviewed and we believe that with those efforts day in day out
we will see a reduction in the violence within that particular community the ssp was speaking
during a walk through of the community to assure residents that the police will be keeping their
presence in the area to ensure it returns to a semblance of safety kirk wright tvg news