Gold street was the scene of a very gruesome attack. Residents were attacked by gunmen spraying the area with bullets. The motive behind the attack that left five dead is said to be a political one.

Published April 21, 1980

MASSACRE AT GOLD ST

GUNMEN IN UNIFORMS KILL 5

GUNMEN BELIEVED TO BE SUPPORTERS OF THE PEOPLE'S NATIONAL PARTY stormed through the Jamaica Labour Party's East Central Kingston stronghold of "Southside" in East Central Kingston, early yesterday morning, killing five people and injuring ten others at a dance.

Four persons were killed on the spot. They are: Horace Richards, 18, of 41 Highholbom Street; Aaron Daley, 26, of 264 Barry Street; Christopher Graham. 18, of 1C Footer Lane; and Donnovan Ridgard, 17, of JLP's 10 Highholbom Street. The names of the four persons were released by the JEast Central Kingston Constituency Office in Tower Street yesterday and confirmed later by the police.

A fifth person,  Miss Geraldine Forrester, of a Maiden Lane address, died at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH). She had been shot in the breast.

Heavily armed

Ten other persons were admitted to the KPH but released as their condition improved. They were Yvonne Morgan and Marjorie Barrett, both of Maiden Lane; Albert Vassel, Clifton Chisholm. Marlene Wright, Hugh Beckford, Suzanne Bennett, Jacqueline Escoffery, and Janet Mitchell all of Central Kingston addresses.

Mr Ryan Peralto, prospective JLP candidate for the area, said in a statement that the attack was carried out by about 100 heavily armed men in identical black fatigue military-type uniforms.

While some of the gunmen shot up the dance hall, others blocked off streets in the area and fired on the patrons as they fled the dance.

The shooting started at approximately 1:40 a.m. according to the police. Citizens of the area told The Gleaner that the gunmen, numbering dozens and armed with submachine guns and pistols, entered the area from Rum Lane. They started shooting on Tower Street. Buildings from the old post office at 88 Tower Street to South Camp Road were shot up extensively.

Occupants of Number 86 and Number 88 Tower Street said shots started echoing all around the buildings and smashing through window panes. Some people ran into toilets and bathrooms in their back yards.

The gunmen attempted to break down some of the gates but found them locked. They marched down the road, spraying bullets in all directions.

The residents said that just as the shooting started, a fire unit raced through the area, but they could not ascertain whether gunmen had "captured" the vehicle as they just heard bullets shattering glass and concrete all over the place while the siren sounded.

After shooting up Tower Street, the gunmen went to  Tower No. 9, Gold Street, where a dance was in progress. An orange vendor, who was selling at the entrance of the premises, said she had to flee because as the men turned the corner, they started spraying the place with bullets.

People started running inside the dance hall. Some of the gunmen stopped at the gate, claiming that they were policemen. They called out to Donnovan Ridgard, who went out to them thinking they were policemen. They sprayed him with shots that left pieces of his skull and brains splattered all over the entrance to the dance hall.

They walked into the hall spraying shots in all directions. Aaron Daley ran to the house in the yard and took refuge on some sponge on the floor inside a bedroom. Shots burst through the wall, shattering his skull and leaving blood and flesh all over the walls.

In the meantime, the gunmen cornered Christopher Graham at the entrance to the dance hall. They turned their guns on him, bullets piercing all parts of his body. Horace Richards, who had sought refuge behind one of the sound system boxes in the hall, was cornered against the gate and shot dozens of times. Residents said after the shooting: “He was like a sieve”.

The gunmen sprayed the entire dance hall with bullets in rapid fire. Geraldine Forrester fell under a hail of bullets. Residents said that the gunmen walked into the hall firing more shots into those persons already fallen. Forrester was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state but died in the late morning, becoming the fifth mortality of the gunmen's rage.

All around "Southside" yesterday there were doors, windows, and walls shattered or pierced by bullets. Spent shells were all around. The bloody sponge on which Aaron Daley died was still on the sidewalk in front of Number 9 Gold Street.

$300 stolen

Several home-made bottle bombs were found around the area. The owner of a bar on Tower Street said that while she was selling in the bar, three men came to tell her that "socialist" gunmen were shooting up the area.

She said she tried to lock the door, but it was too late. A man, whose face she could not recognize, came to the door with a lighted bottle torch in his hand. He raised his hand to throw it but hesitated, and she ran. The men entered the bar  ransacked the place, and stole over $300.

"Bwoy, them just a bus' shot 'bout two hour a go on so. More than a hundred shot fire and bottle bomb and all kind a thing. The police never come til long after them gone," one resident said.

Southside is the strongest JLP area in the East Central Kingston constituency currently held by Prime Minister Michael Manley.

Manley visit

There have been numerous cases of shootings in the areas since 1976, but the situation worsened since last week Sunday, when Mr Manley led a group of his supporters, which the Southside residents said included several men from Dunkirk and other PNP strongholds, into the area. At least two people were shot during the tour.

According to the residents, the JLP has become strong in the area since several youths from the area were killed by the army at Green Bay in 1978.

Since then, they said, they have been terrorised repeatedly by PNP gunmen who they say claim that "all Labourites mus' dead".

The residents claimed that the gunmen on Saturday night kept repeating that "all a oonu a Labourite. Oonu fi dead".

The situation has worsened since Mr Manley's visit to the area last week Sunday.

The residents claim that they are being bullied because many of them have switched from the PNP. They, however, expressed confidence in the Gold Street police although claiming that there were attempts to remove these policemen.

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