Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Second Mannings Hill Road bar operator killed in months

Published:Friday | July 8, 2022 | 12:07 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The bar at 66 Mannings Hill Road where Iciline ‘Rosie’ Tamasa was killed Wednesday night.
The bar at 66 Mannings Hill Road where Iciline ‘Rosie’ Tamasa was killed Wednesday night.

A tense calm hangs over residents and business operators on Mannings Hill Road in St Andrew amid puzzling questions behind the murder of well-known bar operator Iciline ‘Rosie’ Tamasa.

Reports are that about 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Tamasa was sitting in a chair at the entrance to her El Mundo Sports Bar. The pillion passenger hopped off the motorcycle and shot her in the head before the assailants fled.

Tamasa died at the spot with a lollipop stick from the sweet she was consuming hanging out of her mouth.

When The Gleaner visited the usually bustling establishment on Thursday, passers-by stared at the shuttered establishment solemnly.

Flies were swarming around the still-heavily bloodstained surface bearing testament to the attack.

A nearby business establishment was open, but the owner was locked on the inside out of fear of further unsuspecting attacks.

“I am scared. You see how me lock in? I don’t know what is going on,” the proprietor said.

With eyes swollen from crying and black cloth affixed to sections of his business, another vendor mourned openly.

“What make dem so wicked? Why dem do that to Rosie?” he pondered.

The Gleaner gathered that the attackers had passed the establishment on the motorcycle before returning to launch the attack.

Residents of the area believe Tamasa was being monitored.

“Dem have to a watch her. But for what? Wah she coulda do dem suh? You just walk up and fire one shot in a the woman head,” a one commented.

RESIDENTS SHOCKED

Another resident, who briefly took a seat in the very chair in which Tamasa was killed before the attack, was shocked to learn of her demise.

“Mi a the last man go buy something. Two pack of Matterhorn and a Craven A mi go buy. She got up and serve me and I took the seat. As me get the goods, she come back and sat in the chair,” the resident said.

The Gleaner understands that Tamasa, who hails from St Mary and lived in the Whitehall Avenue area, lost a brother to violence roughly two years ago. A nephew and another relative were also killed in recent times.

“Rosie run her business here and her daughter sell good soup that the community support,” one resident said, wondering what went wrong for Tamasa, who had been operating at the location for almost 30 years.

Up to press time, the police said no motive had been established for the killing.

Deputy Superintendent Donovan Dallas of the St Andrew North Division said that the police were pursuing several lines of enquiry.

“The detectives were in the streets trying to see if they could pick up on anything,” Dallas told The Gleaner.

The Mannings Hill Road area had also been rocked by another killing of a female bar operator in March when 60-year-old Lorna Johnson was shot dead while walking to her Glen Drive home after closing her bar for the night.

St Andrew North is seeing a 25 per cent year-on-year increase in murders. Between January 1 and July 6 this year, there were 35 homicides in the division, compared to 28 for the corresponding period 2021.

Shootings have also climbed by 13 per cent – or four more incidents – year on year.

At least 760 people have been killed islandwide so far this year.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com