Murder rocks Old Pen, residents say victim was unlucky
Gun violence hit the Old Pen community in rural Hanover last Saturday afternoon, resulting in a young man being killed and the community left badly traumatised.
The dead man has been identified as Richard Rohan Reid, 23, also known as ‘Bona’.
According to reports from detectives assigned to the Sandy Bay Police Station, shortly after 10 a.m., a group of men from an adjoining community went to Old Pen, where they got into a verbal altercation with other men over the ownership of a motorcycle.
It is said that the outsiders left Old Pen issuing threats. At approximately 3:30 p.m., men armed with handguns returned to the community, where they confronted Reid at the community square. Reid was shot multiple times to his upper body.
“Dem come back come look fe de man dem and run inna Bona and murder him,” a resident told the WESTERN STAR. “We nuh used to dem thing yah inna Old Pen.”
The Sandy Bay police, who were responding to the incident, encountered the fleeing gunmen, who were on two motorcycles.
They tried to apprehend them, but were repelled by heavy gunfire. The men subsequently fled in nearby bushes.
Reid, who residents believe was unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, was transported to the Noel Holmes Hospital by the police, but was pronounced dead on arrival.