Family feud linked to Bull Bay gunfight

There were screams. Then blood. Now a cloud of fear weighs heavily over Cane River.

Tension prevails in the Bull Bay, St Andrew, community after three persons, including reputed gang leader Christopher Linton, otherwise called ‘Dog Paw’, were reportedly shot and wounded in an alleged reprisal in a long-standing family rift that harks back eight years.

Allegations are that four men surprised patrons at a party that was in progress at Nickeima’s Lounge about 8:10 p.m. Saturday and opened fire.

It is unclear what role, if any, Linton might have played in Saturday’s incident, but the police have revealed that he has given them a contrary report about the circumstances under which he was injured that evening.

A claim that he was shot in Tavern, St Andrew, is being probed by the police, but they believe that Linton was hit in the Cane River shoot-out.

Linton was shot in the upper body.

Eyewitnesses say a licensed firearm holder who was at the party challenged the men, forcing them to retreat in an ensuing firefight. He was also injured.

Among those shot and injured are two brothers, aged 22 and 31, who are from Stable Park in the district. They are reportedly in stable condition at hospital.

Bullet holes at the side of the bar counter and door are evidence of the violence that was unleashed late Saturday, and an eyewitness has given a gripping account of an estimated 10-minute gunfight.

“After the shooting started, some girls ducked under the counter, and one of the men fired, hitting the side of the counter,” the eyewitness, whose name The Gleaner is withholding because of security fears, said on Sunday.

“I recalled one girl screaming for her mother when one of the men look under the counter and saw us.”

The eyewitness recounted being petrified at Saturday’s crossfire having seen first-hand another shooting in December last year in which one man was killed and another shot near the lounge.

The rift between the two Cane River families started in 2013 when a man with whom The Gleaner spoke on Sunday was chopped and wounded by a member of the opposing clan.

“The whole community was one until I was chopped three times by Jerome Ford. So the community split after June 23, 2013, when I was chopped in front of my two sons,” the man, whose name this newspaper has opted not to publish on account of safety fears, said during a phone interview from overseas.

Ford was shot and killed and his uncle, Linford Bernard, wounded in December last year when gunmen attacked them in the community. But the Cane River man who was the victim of that chopping attack has denied responsibility for the murder.

“If I wanted to kill Jerome, I would not wait eight years before I do it. I am not Jesus Christ to wait that long. I would have done it two days after he chop me,” the main said.

“Them say a me stay a foreign and send money fi kill Jerome because him chop me.”

The bad blood between the two factions is said to be at risk of boiling over.

There are fears that there might be more reprisals.

Marvette Johnson, Ford’s aunt, and Bernard, her brother, said they have moved on and harbour no ill feelings about the years-long conflict.

But the spiralling violence in the community has stoked fear among her family. Johnson said that none of them is safe.

“As far as we are concerned, the December killing of my grandnephew and wounding of my brother is finished. Mi nuh know weh it a come from. All mi know, one side a say it nah go so and them haffi retaliate on the other side. Mi nuh know when it a go done,” she said.

“I really didn’t feel good that they put out a hit on my grandnephew. ... Right now, mi want peace,” she told The Gleaner.

Saturday’s incident is another round in the notoriety of Linton, who, along with Micah Allen, were freed in April of a gun and shooting conviction dating back to a 2010 crime.

They had each been sentenced to 15 years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm and 15 years for shooting with intent.

Linton and Allen were accused of shooting at two policemen travelling in a service vehicle along Tavern Drive, St Andrew, in April 2010.

The men denied the allegations at their trial.

In quashing the conviction, the Court of Appeal said the identification evidence was unreliable.

editorial@gleanerjm.com