LAST WEEKEND WAS one of the bloodiest for 2005 with 13 persons killed by gunmen, two by the police and five bodies discovered.
Though the incidents are unrelated, they amassed a whopping body count.
The discovery of a decomposing man on the banks of the Rio Cobre on Friday morning was an ominous warning of the murders to follow. By 10:40 a.m. Bradley "Jermaine" Underhill, 28, was shot and killed in an altercation with two security guards on Main Street, Port Maria. He was allegedly shot after stabbing the security guard.
ROBBERY
By 3:00 p.m. that afternoon, 22-year-old Carvil Reid of Arnett Gardens was shot dead on Slipe Pen road. The welder soon became a mere statistic as scarcely an hour later, Sami Ramchadain, 50, of India and Montego Bay was shot and killed by gunmen at Church Street. He was reportedly robbed at his business place of jewellery, appliances, and an undetermined sum of money. Gunmen reportedly shot the businessman several times, before leaving.
As the sun set on a deadly Friday in Jamaica, night time only brought more bloodshed, with a 61-year-old contractor murdered by unknown assailants at 8:00 p.m. that night. Cheslan 'Youth' Simpson was reportedly shot while driving past gunmen who were robbing a bar. The robbers reportedly were shooting wildly and a stray bullet hit Simpson. He died while en-route to hospital.
Before the veil on night was lifted, gunmen struck again. According to the Montego Bay Police, at approximately 12:30 a.m, Christopher 'Flash' Smith, 24, and Nicholas Green (also known as Oneil Grant) were gunned down in a 'drive-by' shooting at Home Hill district, in Norwood, St. James.
Back in St Catherine, the police say that at about 3:30 a.m. after responding to explosions in the Gregory Park area they found Clifford Dave Williams, a 40 year old resident of Boralis Drive, suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to the Spanish Town Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Before dawn Saturday morning, Franklin Swaby, 21, was killed by gunmen at his doorsteps on Hopefield Avenue.
GRUESOME DISCOVERY
Daylight only brought light to a gruesome discovery in Sandy Bay, Clarendon. At 8:00 a.m., a passerby discovered three bodies in the bushes, including a father and son. The dead men were identified as Roy 'Tony' Thompson, 48, his son Randy Thompson, 19, and Kevin Howard, 21.
By 11:00 a.m. that morning, police shot and killed Trevor 'Cudjoe Pa' Walker, allegedly in an exchange of gunfire. Only an hour later over in Bog Walk, the skeletal remains of 20 year-old Maurice Hunter were found in the bushes of West Prospect.
Guns weren't the only tools of murderers for the weekend, as knife-wielding assailants also counted for two deaths on Saturday in St. Catherine. In a dispute at Guy's Hill Square, St. Catherine, Ervin 'Rammy' Wynter, a 48-year-old farmer, was stabbed to death during a dispute. An hour and a half later at 9:30 p.m., a 37 year-old-gardener of Mount Florence district, was chopped to death by two men in the district of Glengoffe. According to the Glengoffe police, Clifton 'Bill' Hamilton was visiting a female in the area when he was pounced upon by two masked men armed with machetes, and chopped to death.
By 10:30 p.m., Delroy Edwards, 42, was shot dead in his home on Portland Road in East Kingston. At 12:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, an unidentified man was killed by police in an exchange of gunfire in Mineral Heights, Clarendon.
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