Mother’s Day clash sparks fire-bombing in Rockfort
Published:Tuesday | May 10, 2022 | 12:11 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
A Mother’s Day domestic dispute is at the centre of an arson attack early Monday that has left 13 people homeless, four families displaced, millions in cash destroyed, personal belongings damaged, and victims nursing injuries.
When gunshots rained down on residents of 6 Raphael Road in Rockfort about 3:45 a.m., waking them from slumber, they dashed to safety from their house that was under fire.
Ten rooms went up in smoke in the volatile east Kingston community.
One of the victims, a 21-year-old construction worker, was a shadow of himself when The Gleaner visited the area yesterday.
The construction worker, who has just started to earn a living and was trying to lift himself out poverty, said he lost everything.
“Inna mi room mi deh and see bare fire a blaze. All mi passport bun up and mi birth paper. We nearly dead. Mi just start life. Mi $300,000 burn up,” he said.
“Mi haffi grab mi sister. All mi granny drop right a di gate. Mi haffi lift her up.”
A relative told The Gleaner that the community has been at war since 2017, but things took a turn for the worst after the Mother’s Day fight.
“Mi cousin and her babyfather have a dispute and him beat her up and a rush to the mother fi stab up the mother, so mi cousin dem run him down and get involve, so from there so … the argument start. Little war did a go on and dem go fi gun and fire shot down the road pon we,” the resident said.
At least two motor vehicles were damaged in the lead-up to the arson attack.
Threats were allegedly made that the place would be set on fire, but no report was made to the police then.
Between the gunfire and the inferno, residents said there was limited opportunity to save property.
“While the shot dem a fire, the place a burn down, we in deh a try throw water. A long after when the shot dem done everybody run out and so. A bare bawl we a bawl, ‘cause we couldn’t find my cousin,” a resident said, indicating burn marks on the relative.
One resident reportedly lost $330,000 and another the equivalent of US$500,000.
A 63-year-old woman who received medical attention for fire-related injuries and diabetes complications was thankful she managed to save her visa, saying she was seeking to leave Jamaica soon.
Councillor Jacqueline Lewis, who offered sheet sets and foodstuff, described the incident as a tragedy that emanated from a domestic dispute.
Senior Superintendent Tommie Lee Chambers, commander of the Kingston Eastern Police Division, confirmed that one suspect, who was held on Red Hills Road, was in custody and that the security forces were hunting other alleged perpetrators.
Chambers confirmed that a domestic dispute was the source of the clash and confirmed that no formal report was made to the police.