Mo Bay Mayhem

Thugs wreak havoc in St James 2016 murder count approaching 200

ST JAMES, especially the parish capital, Montego Bay, is now gripped by fear and anxiety as gun-toting thugs continue to wreak murderous havoc, killing and maiming with impunity as the parish’s murder count races towards 200 since the start of the year.

“I lived through the tribal war of the 1970s and I have never seen anything like this,” a former politician told The Gleaner yesterday shortly after news broke of another murder in the affluent Ironshore community. “This is past madness! Right now, I am feeling so much raw emotion that I feel like just screaming and bawling out. We can’t take any more of this.”

In yesterday’s incident in Ironshore, which occurred close to the popular Blue Diamond Complex, shots reportedly barked for several minutes as gangsters armed with rifles and handguns snuffed out the life of a Glendevon man identified only as ‘Bob’. Several persons, who were at the location, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Since the start of this week, there has been a spike in shootings across the parish, resulting in several persons being killed. The mayhem is happening despite the current high-visibility presence of joint police-military patrols across the parish in recent months.

At approximately 7:20 a.m. on Tuesday, all hell broke loose on Creek Street in downtown Montego Bay when a gunman opened fire on a bus crammed with schoolchildren. When the shooting subsided, it was discovered that the driver, Alvin ‘Strive Clarke, had succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds. Two students from Maldon