Schoolboy among four murdered in St James
Parish body count hits 150 despite SOE
WESTERN BUREAU:
A 13-YEAR-OLD Anchovy High School student was among seven persons murdered across St James between last Thursday and Friday as the parish’s murder count for the year climbed to 150 despite an ongoing state of public emergency.
The schoolboy, identified as Jamie ‘Flip’ Anderson, of a Peace View address, was killed in the yard of a relative in Paradise, Norwood, alongside his 20-yearold cousin, Fitzgerald Rodman, a promising architect who was highly revered in his community because of his academic prowess. They were killed by men who opened gunfire shortly after 8 p.m. on Sunday.
The other victims are Christopher Frey, labourer of Stonehenge in Cambridge; and an unidentified young male whose body was discovered along the roadway in the Mango Walk area with bullet wounds.
GANG FEUD
In Norwood, where a bloody gang feud has been raging for several months, Anderson and Rodman were standing in Rodman’s yard when they were ambushed by gunmen who sprayed them with gunfire. Both died at the scene.
Anderson’s mother, Charmaine Woodstock, was stunned when she heard that her son was killed because he had complained about not feeling well and left for downtown Montego Bay to buy medication and return home.
“I still cannot understand how he ended up in Norwood,” said the trembling mother.
At Rodman’s home, tears flowed as his mother, Lisa Bernard, cried in anguish amid family members and neighbours.
“He completed the first stage of training as an architect and was now making preparation to move on to UTech,” a neighbour told The
Gleaner, against the backdrop of sobs and screams from the grieving mother, in reference to the University of Technology.
“He was like a role model in the community … . Everybody admired him because he was bright and ambitious.”
Anderson was reportedly quite close to Rodman, who regularly assisted him in getting school projects done. Both were said to share passion for football.
Prior to the Norwood incident, about 6 a.m. on Sunday, Frey was at his Stonehenge home with his son when a group of masked men kicked in his door and opened gunfire. Frey was shot multiple times but his son managed to escape. When the police responded to the shooting, the injured man was rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The unidentified male was found dead along the roadway in Mango Walk by a police team that went to investigate reports of gunfire in the community shortly after 11:30 p.m. The victim, who was believed to be in his mid-20s, of dark complexion, and about five feet, seven inches tall, was clad in a red shirt, blue jeans shorts, and red shoes.