Lilliput residents call for increased patrols after three slain
Published:Monday | February 14, 2022 | 12:08 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
RESIDENTS OF Lilliput, St James, are appealing for increased police patrols following three murders on Saturday, with a 17-year-old boy among the victims of two separate shooting incidents.
Those killed have been identified as 31-year-old Akash Campbell, of Gordon Crescent in Granville; 17-year-old Rasheed Stewart, of New England, Lilliput; and 34-year-old Leroy Service, otherwise called ‘Bredda’ or ‘Magic’, of Bobman Hill, also in Lilliput.
Campbell was the victim in the first incident, which occurred about 5:30 p.m. The police reported that Campbell was driving his car along the Lilliput main road when a motor car with several men drove up and blocked his path. They then alighted from the car and opened fire, hitting Campbell several times before speeding away.
The police were summoned and Campbell was rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) where he was pronounced dead.
Three hours later, at approximately 8:45 p.m., Service and Stewart were among several patrons standing outside a bar at Bobman Hill when gunmen shot both victims before escaping on foot. Both were rushed to the CRH where they were pronounced dead.
“We need fi see more o’ the police them inna Lilliput, especially in the night,” one shopkeeper, who identified himself as Pete, told The Gleaner.
“We not saying the police them nah do them work, but we need fi see them presence more in the area, and things like this would never happen,” he added.
Service was a good friend who was not involved in wrongdoing, said the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper, who said he has lived in Lilliput all his life, noted that the killings occurred because youngsters chose to settle their differences violently.
The three murders took the number of persons killed in St James to 37 since the start of the year.