Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Love Lane family loses third man to gun violence

Published:Monday | November 15, 2021 | 12:07 AMDavid Salmon/Gleaner Writer
Telecia Gay (right) mourns the shooting death of her father, 75-year-old Vassel Gay, while her sister, Andrea Gay, looks on. The incident occurred on Love Lane on Saturday evening.
Telecia Gay (right) mourns the shooting death of her father, 75-year-old Vassel Gay, while her sister, Andrea Gay, looks on. The incident occurred on Love Lane on Saturday evening.

Telecia Gay struggled to hold back the tears as she recounted the final moments she had with her father, 75-year-old Vassel ‘Coolie Man’ Gay.

The deadly shooting that silenced her father forever occurred in the vicinity of Love Lane in the Kingston Central Police Division shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Mr Gay was on his way to collect meat from a nearby shop upon his daughter’s request. That was the last time they spoke.

“Mi lose myself. Mi lose myself. It’s like half of my heart gone. Mi love mi fada,” said a distraught Telecia.

She believes that the bullet that killed her father was meant for another family member.

The elder Gay is the third family member to lose his life.

Telecia has lost two brothers. A nephew has also been paralysed as her family has been caught in the centre of ongoing violence between armed factions in the community.

Mr Gay’s murder has rocked the community to its core as the senior citizen was well respected by residents.

“Him nice to everybody. Him nuh have nuh enemy. Him feed everybody. Him nice to everybody. Mi born and come see him a sell fish at King Street corner,” said a resident. “… Anybody guh there and say ‘Coolie Man, beg yuh a little soup,’ him a give dem.”

Gun violence has continued to plague Love Lane and other sections of Kingston Central, where gang shootings have been rampant.

Kingston Central is one of seven police divisions that were placed under a state of emergency on Sunday, but the introduction of an initial 48-hour curfew has not assuaged Telecia’s anguish. She believes that a permanent police post should be erected in the Love Lane community.

Necessary for peace

Over in Kingston Eastern –` another of the police divisions in which emergency powers have been activated – a resident of Dunkirk argued that the additional security measures were necessary for the maintenance of peace.

“I am a business person, so there is no way I have a problem with it. My philosophy is that if you are an honest citizen, you don’t have a problem with police work,” said the woman, who requested anonymity because of security fears.

She commended the police force for imposing the 48-hour curfew Saturday evening, without notice, because it might have allowed law enforcers the opportunity to catch criminals off guard.

“I get to understand that they gone with a lot of guys. It was sudden. That’s why they get to nab some people,” she said.

However, other residents were livid at the security measures, arguing that the crackdown would hurt the rebound of commerce mere weeks after the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns on Sundays.

“It nah solve nutting, you know, because yuh see true the curfew and you can’t move up and down. A dem time the man dem a come kill,” the resident, who asked that her name not be published, told The Gleaner.

“Because true a no-movement day, dem have the time, dem study the police and know when to come round and do dem things. So the curfew nah help we.”

Even more concerning for residents was the shock announcement they received when members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force instructed them to return to their homes at 10 a.m.

Half an hour later, Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared a state of public emergency in the parishes of St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, Kingston Central, Western, and Eastern, and St Andrew Southern police divisions.

The four divisions across Kingston account for 392, or 32 per cent, of the national murder figure. Meanwhile, of the 1,100 shootings countrywide, 391, or 36 per cent, were recorded across the divisions.