Strong leads in deadly Waterhouse mass shooting
Published:Wednesday | July 27, 2022 | 12:12 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The St Andrew South police say they are following strong leads in Tuesday’s daring daylight murder and mass shooting in Waterhouse, St Andrew.
Undeterred by a downpour about 8:50 a.m., assailants travelling in two motor cars opened fire on a group of people in Drewsland.
The incident took place near the popular ‘Red Bridge’ on Unity Lane in the community.
The police are following several theories, including indications that the attack might be in reprisal for a deadly stabbing incident on the weekend in a nearby community known as Balmagie.
That incident surrounds the death of Andre Douglas at a football match.
The man killed on Tuesday was Alton Haffeden, who reportedly was a windshield cleaner.
He was shot and killed while three others were still hospitalised up to press time.
Commanding officer for St Andrew South, Senior Superintendent Kirk Ricketts, says the police may soon release the names of persons of interest in Tuesday’s shooting incident.
“We are getting some good information from persons on the ground and in other communities that we believe that these men would be coming from. We believe that we have identities of some persons who might be involved,” Ricketts said in a Gleaner interview.
Additional security assets have been deployed to the area to limit the likelihood of a flare-up.
Up to July 16, the St Andrew South police had recorded a decline in murders and shootings.
Since the start of 2022, sixty-nine persons were killed, 31 fewer year-on-year. That represents a fall of 31 per cent.
There were 79 reports of shootings, a 18 per cent decline, or 17 fewer than the 96 for the corresponding period in 2021.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring St Andrew North, detectives are probing Sunday’s murder of 29-year-old Lamone Lynch.
He was shot and killed in the relatively peaceful farming community of Mount Airy.
Speaking with The Gleaner on Monday, his family said they were aware that his tainted past could bring trouble to their doorstep.
Lynch recently relocated to the area from a volatile Kingston neighbourhood.
“Some of us never like the idea ... . Mi never even hear, and normal when it happen (explosion) happen, we hear. A year and odd now him live here,” the family member said.
The relative is warning persons not to accommodate persons of ill reput unless they are willing to suffer the consequences.
“Nowadays when people a kill people, dem nuh business. If dem even come fi one person and dem see three, dem a kill the same three,” the relative said.
Reports are that sometime after 4 p.m., explosions were heard and the residents called the police.
On the arrival of the police, Lynch was found on the roadside with a bullet wound to the back of the head.