Cops seek residents’ help to nab Franklin Town gangsters

INVESTIGATORS AT the Kingston East Police Division are begging the cooperation of residents whom they say are being left shellshocked as gangsters in Franklin Town and its environs carry out bloody attacks on each other.

“We need the statements. We are making the appeal. We are hearing the same names, but we don’t have the evidence to support the investigations. We need the incidental support,” said divisional head Deputy Superintendent Robert Walker.

Walker said that ballistic examinations of 362 spent shells collected by the police after a recent shoot-out between gunmen in the division determined that they were fired from at least 27 different weapons. He said that the weapons were often hidden in full sight of law-abiding residents, who remained quiet, even as they are being tormented by known gunmen.

“We have three murders now that we know who did them. But we are not getting any written statements from anyone until the shooters them turn up dead – whether killed by their cronies or by the police,” he said. “A lot of the persons (residents) are afraid, but if they believe the persons are so murderous and notorious, we have the witnessprotection system for them.”

FEMALE DON

Walker last week cited the death of 29-year-old Nikeita McLean of Cambridge Street, who was shot dead last month and another woman shot and injured during an attack at a bar in the community. Days after the attack, residents openly fingered McLean as a ruthless female don in the community involved in a double murder on nearby Maiden Street weeks earlier.

“Yuh have two man weh dead a Rae Town weh day, and dem seh a she lick dem dung. Dat’s why yuh see it suh serious – because dem did a go hard fikill har. All police clothes di man dem inna. Rumour have it seh har friend invite har down dere,” one resident of Maiden Street said.

Such information is hard to come by on paper, however, said Walker, who said that it was only after McLean was killed that they confirmed that indeed, she had been involved in the deaths of Shawn Cunningham, 41, and Okieive Goodman, 34. At least four persons have been arrested in connection with the latest murders, he said.