Gruesome execution in Montego Bay
Published:Thursday | August 31, 2017 | 12:00 AMAdrian Frater
WESTERN BUREAU:
Traffic along the busy Queen's Drive in Montego Bay, St James, was brought to an unexpected halt yesterday morning as a gunman exited a vehicle and murdered an elderly motorist in full view of score of onlookers.
The deceased, identified as 70-year-old George Hall of Sun Valley Road in Glendevon, was shot multiple times as he sat around the steering wheel of his white panel-type minivan in a line of traffic approaching the stop light at the Queen's Drive and Leaders Avenue intersection.
"He never had a chance. Di killer just run up to the passenger side of the van and start to put it on. The dead man was trapped in the van," said a motorist who claimed he saw the incident as it unfolded. "It looked like the killer was trailing him and just decided fi kill him when the traffic stop fi the light."
The incident caused a massive traffic pile-up along Queen's Drive, especially after the police arrived at the location and cordoned off the crime scene. Traffic had to divert to Gloucester Avenue.
"MoBay mad. First dem fire shot almost inna de courthouse inna middle day and now dem dweet on Queen Drive inna broad daylight," said a woman who was on her way to the nearby Sangster International Airport. "Dem a kill old people, dem a kill baby, dem a kill young people, dem just a kill. No respect fi law, no respect fi life."
According to eyewitnesses, after the killing, the gunman made no attempt to conceal his weapon as he ran back to the car from which he alighted. The vehicle subsequently sped away.
COURTHOUSE SHOOTING
In a similar incident on Friday, June 16, which occurred a short distance from the St James Parish Court, 24-year-old Elvis Malcolm of a Canterbury address in Montego Bay, was killed shortly after 11:30 a.m. when he was fired on by heavily armed men in the vicinity of the Mt Alvernia Preparatory School.
Malcolm, who had just left the courthouse in a car, was intercepted at the first traffic light on Queen's Drive. His killers, who were armed with AK47s and M16s, fired a barrage of shots, which also damaged a number of other vehicles. Several motorists abandoned their vehicles and fled in panic.