Double murder rocks Trelawny after alleged gangster killed

The Trelawny police are now investigating the double murder of a taxi operator and his common-law wife in Kinloss district on Thursday night, following the shooting death of a man who has been described as one of the parish’s top gangsters.

Fifty-two-year-old Robert Gardner and 50-year-old Marcia Thomas were killed in what the police say was reprisal for the murder of Owen ‘Beenie Man’ Green, who was killed in Kinloss earlier that day.

Reports are that a group of armed men kicked open the door of the board house in which Gardner and Thomas lived. The couple was reportedly questioned about the whereabouts of another family member before being shot and killed.

June Gardner, sister of the slain taxi operator, told The Gleaner yesterday that her brother and his girlfriend were good people.

“Robert was a good brother, father, and guardian to all of us. Him do him little painting, and him taxi work, and him don’t trouble nobody,” Gardner lamented. “Him and Marcia never deserve to die like this because them never mixed up in anything.”

REPRISAL KILLING

In the meantime, Superintendent Winston Milton, commanding officer in charge of Trelawny, said that Green had been under investigation for some time prior to his death.

“Investigations have revealed that the murder of Robert Gardner and his common-law wife was an act of reprisal for Owen Green’s killing. Green was under the police radar for his involvement in several crimes, and he was also out on bail for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition,” said Milton.

“We want to assure the residents of Kinloss district that the police are now on the ground in the area, and we are covering every section of the community to ensure that any further reprisal does not take place,” Milton continued.

Reports are that at approximately 10 a.m. on Thursday, Green was sitting in a parked vehicle along the Kinloss main road when he was ambushed and shot dead by armed men.

Since the start of the year, seven persons have been murdered in Trelawny.