East Kingston tense after shooting

Police have stepped up their presence in sections of East Kingston following Thursday morning's killing of political activist Devon Murray, otherwise called 'Pepsi'.

Murray was shot while sitting in his vehicle on Homestead Road, shortly after 8 a.m. A woman was also injured in the attack.

Senior Superintendent Victor Hamilton, head of the Kingston East Police, said that the area is tense and police and soldiers have been deployed to the area.

Hamilton said investigators are probing reports that the killing stemmed from the beating of woman on Wednesday by men associated with Murray.

He said the police are searching for suspects in connection with the murder. The murder is the latest act of violence in the troubled police division.

Residents of Rae Town say there has been an ongoing war between persons on Margaret and Wellington streets.

The war recently claimed the life of 64-year-old Keith Robinson, who was shot and killed in his sleep, when gunmen fired at him through his room window some time after 4 a.m. on Sunday.

Get some more police

"Every night yuh hear shot a beat. See a just Sunday dem kill a elder in a him house. A big man dat enuh, so if dem decide fi come fi me, me know me nah survive. So when it touch certain time, grille and door lock tight," one resident said. "If a even fi get some more police fi drive through every now and then 'cause that really work.

One Wellington Street resident fears for her elderly mother.

"Not even the gate me nuh make she go. The place start run unpredictable. We can deh in a the front a we yard and shot fly in kill we; a so we a live," she said. "It nuh make no sense. Ghetto people alone just a kill off ghetto people. The boy dem cah even come outside and play ball again."

Hamilton told THE WEEKEND STAR that Rae Town is a crime hotspot.

"We are aware of the war. We have been giving special attention to that area for a while because of the ongoing violence, which also affects innocent people. These people shoot across the road at each other. Citizens are fighting against each other and murdering each other for no good reason," he said. But Hamilton said the police need the cooperation of the citizens.

"There is absolutely no information coming from the community. That's one of the challenges we have in there, but we are there and we try to be there as much as we can possibly be," he said. Hamilton noted that there are multiple areas of conflict in the division, including in Franklyn Town, sections of Brown's Town, and Bowerbank.