Disabled woman shot in head after warnings she was targeted

An inconsolable girl who witnessed a gunman, posing as a customer, murder her grandaunt at close range on Wednesday is wracked with guilt after letting him inside their Passage Fort Drive yard.

The tragedy unfolded after the gunman gave the preteen a $100 bill as a ruse that he wanted to purchase cigarettes from a shop at the rear of the premises.

Fifty-eight-year-old Joan Stone, who was told by the police two months ago that she was being targeted since witnessing the murder of her son on March 25, 2020, was fatally shot in the head about 6:45 p.m.

Stone had hobbled on crutches after the 2020 incident that claimed the life of her son, Jermaine Litchmore, and left her with gunshot injuries to her leg.

The grandniece was the arms and legs of the now-deceased woman.

The child would run errands for Stone, making regular purchasing runs to the wholesale or washing up after meals, a relative said.

But now, the child is haunted by the chilling memory of the gunman unleashing deadly violence.

“She not doing so well. She nuh sleep last (Wednesday) night. She just a blame herself say if she never tek him money come round here, dem wouldn’t kill her auntie. And is her favourite aunty because a she help her,” the child’s mother, who requested anonymity, told The Gleaner.

The family is concerned that the killers are not finished. Stone escaped injury after being fired at on two separate occasions.

“We worried. We can’t sleep. We nuh sleep last night, and then this come back like last year when her son dead. It was a Wednesday when her son died,” a relative said.

DISPUTE BETWEEN NEIGHBOURS

The violence, according to the residents, stems from a dispute between neighbours and the now-deceased Litchmore, a car wash operator who intervened to quell the feud but became a victim.

“Di police dem come fi her and tell her that they get information that dem a guh come kill her in her house, and dem really send come kill her in her house,” the relative said of Stone’s demise.

Stone’s daughter was too distraught to speak to our news team and only alluded to her disbelief as she faced the daunting prospect of mopping up her mother’s blood.

The bloodstained kitchen, floor, door jamb, and stove bore testimony to the violence that happened as Stone was in the process of sharing food to dine and watch the nightly news.

The gunman, while making his escape, ran into another family member but only pointed the firearm threateningly before exiting the yard and boarding a waiting motor car.

Stone would have turned 59 on December 20.

The man wanted for the murder of Stone’s son is Marcus Mitchell.

According to information posted on the Jamaica Constabulary Force website, Mitchell is said to frequent Pen Way, Passage Fort, in Portmore.

An apology was allegedly given to Stone by the accused man’s mother after Litchmore’s murder, but it does not appear that it was accepted. The bad blood had gone unresolved, with Stone reportedly engaging in outbursts with the wanted man’s mother.

“Stone always a cuss and ... say (name redacted), yuh pickney kill mi pickney and shot mi ... and mi can’t walk,” the relative said, struggling to hold back tears.

Wednesday’s fatal shooting occurred roughly 300 metres from the Waterford Police Station.

The Greater Portmore Criminal Investigation Branch is investigating.