Probe into gas station hit as murders pass 1,000

The St Catherine South police are probing if the daring murder of a pump attendant at the Petcom service station on Passage Fort Drive on Tuesday is linked to a feud in Central Village.

Chevelle Lewis, 31, of a Compound, Central Village, address, was shot dead by men travelling on motorcycle shortly after 4 p.m.

Co-workers say Lewis, a mother of two, showed up for the 2:30 p.m. shift. She died on the spot.

Several employees were visibly shaken and cried openly on the scene.

Eyewitnesses said the men, a driver and pillion, murdered Lewis in less than five seconds.

“The bike have a loud noise and dem just ride up and ‘Bam! Bam!’ The rest of workers run and people who were doing business panic,” a resident said.

“The boy dem wicked. Look how the woman a work and dem come kill her.”

A woman, said to be the mother of Lewis, had to be consoled as she watched from afar her daughter’s body lying on the ground.

“The dutty boy dem come shoot mi daughter and now mi have to go struggle with the two pickney dem,” the woman said.

A family friend who was in the company of the grieving mother told The Gleaner that Lewis had a 12-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy who are both to start school next week.

The family said Lewis, who would have celebrated her birthday next week, had been working at the gas station for some time.

“She just leave the house and go work. She serious ‘bout her work and take care of her two kids dem,” the relative said.

Operations at the gas station were discontinued for the day as investigators were still combing the scene for clues up to 7:30 p.m.

The police said they are exploring various angles and will leave no stone unturned.

The incident caused a major traffic pile-up as motorists were diverted at the intersection of Municipal Boulevard and Passage Fort Drive.

The Greater Portmore Criminal Investigation Branch is investigating the murder.

As the Crime Monitoring and Oversight Committee prepares to hold a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, murders islandwide were up nearly six per cent, with 1,003 reported homicides, as at August 29.

The St Catherine South Police Division, where Lewis’ murder occurred, has recorded a two per cent drop in murders up to August 29.

Since the start of the year, 82 persons have been killed compared to 84 for the corresponding period in 2021.

The division, however, recorded more shootings – a 15.4 per cent increase year-on-year.

Meanwhile, president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association, Dianne Parram, lamented the spate of violent crime.

Parram said that while her members have surveillance regimes, they might be required to impose “other countermeasures”.

“While we have excellent security arrangements at gas stations, it is difficult to counter such attacks,” Parram, who expressed condolences to the family of the deceased, said in a Gleaner interview.

She continued: “All our outlets are fitted with surveillance camera, and we also have a memorandum of understanding with JamaicaEye. We do have a robust security arrangement, including plain-clothes security personnel, as well as regular police patrols.”

Parram cautioned that loitering at gas stations was not permitted and that security personnel have been advised to discourage that practice.

There have been at least five fatalities at service stations in eastern Jamaica over the last 31 months, including three in late 2021 at the Mackville Terrace Total at the foot of Red Hills, Kingston, and another at a Texaco in February 2020 on Constant Spring Road.

– Andre Williams and Ruddy Mathison