Body found on Eve Lane as three killed in capital city
Published:Saturday | January 30, 2021 | 12:23 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Police investigators are concerned that the usually quiet Eve Lane, which runs perpendicular to the National Heroes Circle in Kingston, is becoming a choice location for murderers in the Corporate Area.
The latest chapter in the lane’s bloody history unfolded yesterday as the body of unidentified male was found in a clump of bushes along the sidewalk yesterday afternoon after gunshots rang out in the usually quiet area about 2 o’clock.
“I drove past and saw the body lying in the bushes. I went to buy gas and drove back around there, and the body was still there, so I called the police,” a passer-by told The Gleaner. “The person had what appear to be dreadlocks.”
Upon their arrival, the police said they found the body of an unidentified male, clad in a pair of blue denim jeans pants, blue shirt and a pair of brown sandals.
One person who lives nearby recalled hearing a single explosion.
Investigators told The Gleaner that a motive has not been established and their probe continues.
Third fatal shooting
The incident was the third homicide in Kingston up to 4 p.m.
In one of the earlier fatal shooting incidents, about 10:53 a.m., two vendors – a male and a female – were shot along Princess Street.
They were rushed to the Kingston Public Hospital, where the male – who remained unidentified up to press time – died while undergoing treatment.
Eve Lane, which connects Slipe Road and West Heroes Circle, is the location where the body of 13-year-old Denham Town High School student Rushane Smith was pulled from a rubbish heap on January 26, 2017.
Rushane’s hands were tied behind his back and his shirt was pulled over his head. He had been shot several times in the head.
Ironically, in a photograph accompanying the article headlined ‘Save our children!’, published in The Sunday Gleaner of January 8, 2017, a barefooted Rushane is seen steering a handcart along Duke Street, with two younger children aboard and four others running alongside.
He would be killed before the month was through.
The police were again called to a murder scene on Eve Lane in February 2020 when a male was again found with gunshot wound to the head.
Reports from the Central Kingston police were that on February 19, 2020, gunmen opened fire at two men along Eve Lane, killing 20-year-old Darion Bryan and injuring the other person.
Bryan’s aunt, on learning about yesterday’s incident on Eve Lane, wrote on The Gleaner’s Instagram post, saying, “Same damn place my nephew’s body was found last February with a gunshot wound to the head.”
Up to yesterday, Jamaica had recorded 111 murders, six more than the corresponding period up to January 29 last year.
St James (18), St Andrew South (18) and Kingston Western (15) are the top three most deadly of the 19 police divisions in the island so far this year.