Wed | May 15, 2024

Update | Man chased, shot dead as gang feud escalates

Published:Saturday | October 24, 2020 | 5:47 PM
The dead man has been identified as Ricardo Allen otherwise known as 'Pops'.As gunshots rang out, workmen, vendors and shoppers in the vicinity scampered for cover.

Andre Williams, Staff Reporter Investigators probing the shooting death of a man who was chased and shot at a car wash at the intersection of Molynes and Waltham Park roads in St Andrew say it may be linked to a gang feud.

The incident happened about 2pm Saturday.

The dead man has been identified as Ricardo Allen otherwise known as 'Pops'.

As gunshots rang out, workmen, vendors and shoppers in the vicinity scampered for cover. “Mi jus see man a scatter and mi hear the shot dem... about 10 shot fire," said a woman who works at a nearby shop.

Allen’s mother who arrived at the scene was too distraught to speak, falling to the ground as she sought to come to grips with the murder.

“A lie dem a tell, dem nuh kill mi pickney,” she said before she was consoled by a friend. Persons gathered at the scene openly bemoaned the killing, crying Allen's innocence, saying he was a gift to his mother.

“A nuff pickney she have, who a doctor, manager and teacher and a him stay round her and do everything for him mother," said one relative.

The Gleaner was told that no sooner than Allen swept a section of the compound for a woman, gunshots rang out.

“Bare shot dem fire... dem run pass me and run him down and him drop and dem shot him up more," an alleged eyewitness told The Gleaner The gunmen escaped in a waiting motor car.

Investigators say based on preliminary reports, the killing is linked to the ongoing gang war in the Rome and William Lane areas of Maxfield Avenue.

Last Friday, the decapitated, bullet-riddled bodies of Mark Wellington, otherwise called ‘Blackie’, of a Maxfield Avenue address, and Leonardo Hendricks, otherwise called ‘Platty’, of a Kew Lane address, also in the Maxfield area, were found at an abandoned property in the crime-plagued Plum Lane.

The men were killed in the relation to a war in the space, police say.

So far, the war which reportedly started in the St Andrew South Police Division has spread to two other police divisions, St Andrew North and St Andrew Central.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us @onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.