Mom pleads for peace after Gregory Park firebombings

A mother is desperately calling for warring factions in Gregory Park, Portmore, to end a series of gunfights as her home narrowly missed ruination in a wave of arson attacks on Tuesday that destroyed three houses.

In a prolonged gunfight which reportedly began late Monday into Tuesday, three homes were firebombed at separate locations in the St Catherine community torn by violent crime.

A concrete structure at Mitchell Drive was burnt out and two board dwellings at 5 Cottage Drive were flattened.

As smoke continued rising late Tuesday morning, the woman, who asked not to be named because of security fears, busily instructed a workman to restructure a section of her home that was damaged.

“It never go right inside to damage stuff. It’s just the board areas weh we have pon di building it burn out. We can’t leave everything outside, so we have to try and block it up,” the woman said in a Gleaner interview.

“We a go outa door and if anything and dem come straight inna di house pon mi, mi have to try block it off. This is hard.”

She lives alone with her two daughters and says the entire household is fearful. Having grown up in Gregory Park, she said she has nowhere to go.

She said that her neighbours had abandoned the damaged premises for close to a year and only had some of their belongings stored inside.

The owners of the premises left the community because of a death to a relative.

That was after one family member died, prompting the occupants to flee for their lives.

The desperate state of affairs has weighed on the mother, causing her to plead for a cessation in violence.

“Mi just a ask the people dem fi just stop. Mi nuh see the sense in this. Innocent people weh nuh business wid nothing wah go on a get hurt,” she lamented.

“They need to stop. Just make we try and live loving.”

Over on Mitchell Drive, residents were tight-lipped.

A resident living in proximity to a torched house told The Gleaner he heard nothing and saw nothing. That’s the crude reality of communities like Gregory Park, where residents have a greater fear for gangsters than faith in the police.

His neighbour, however, was not as silent, revealing that he had suffered the most terrifying night of gunfire during his time in Gregory Park.

“A di most shot mi ever hear, and the longest … inna di after 3 (a.m.). A pure explosion! Mi have to just stay in,” the resident said.

The Cottage Drive mother said quick thinking saved her from losing the only place she calls home.

“When mi hear that whole heap o’ shot dem, mi hear fire and see live a blaze, blaze … . We have inside water, so we start throw it on our building.

“The heat from over there come over and catch we, but really is the two board house dem over there so dem light,” the woman said.

The residents said people are dying in Gregory Park and it is not all recorded by the news.

There was heavy military and police presence in the aftermath of the gunfight and firebombings.

Commander for the St Catherine South Police Division, Senior Superintendent Christopher Phillips, said the violence in Gregory Park is of great concern.

Phillips described the gunmen as brazen, adding that they sometimes challenged the police.

The police commander acknowledged that residents had reached their boiling point and had grown frustrated.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com