Update | A SISTER’S REGRET

Sue-Ann Ebanks wallowed in grief outside her home in Spring Village, Old Harbour, on Monday, oozing regret that she had persuaded her sister to attend a community football match that descended into a killing field a day earlier.

As Ebanks huddled with other relatives, she rued the shooting death of Sasha-Gaye Ebanks, nicknamed 'Tamara', who fell victim to bullets targeting her uncle, Jerome Squire, who was also killed.

“Mi shouldn't tell mi sister fi come a match ... . Mi a go live with this. Oh, Father, mi a go live wid this,” she cried.

Sue-Ann recalled that her sister was not a fan of football but yielded to urgings to spend an evening of leisure with family.

Having hit Squire, a gunman sprayed the crowd with bullets. A man identified only as 'Curry' was also slain. Six others were injured.

The drive-by attack on the intra-company match staged at the Jamaica Broilers playing field was the 16th multiple murder for the month of September.

“Mi hurry mi sister fi go get death,” said Sue-Ann, recalling in anguish how Sasha-Gaye, 36, had taken longer than usual to get dressed to attend the event.

“Father, how mi a go get over this? Mi can't get over this. It feel like a my fault Tamara dead,” she wailed.

An aunt of Sasha-Gaye's, whose name was withheld, blamed Squire for causing her niece's death. The police theorise that the mass shooting was sparked by a dispute over illegal guns that went missing.

At the house of mourning on Monday, Suzie Ebanks, another sister of Sasha-Gaye's, experienced a panic attack and was taken by the police to hospital along with a cousin of the deceased who had fainted.

Policewomen who were among a large delegation of law enforcers who had been engaging with the community since 8:30 a.m. on Monday burst into tears as they watched the family mourn.

Deputy Superintendent Paulette Baker, territorial officer for the St Catherine South Police Division, described the tragedy as grave.

“Even though I am a police officer, just being among the group and seeing them grieving, you feel it to the heart, and so I can imagine what those family members are going through,” she said.

Baker urged patrons and players at the football field to give the police information about the killers.

A relative of one of the injured individuals told The Gleaner that there were frenetic scenes in the aftermath of the late-afternoon attack as screaming patrons scrambled to safety while bodies felled by gunfire littered the field.

“The whole ball field come in like one ants' nest, mad ants' nest. [People] just a run up and down,” he said.

The man, who requested anonymity, said that although his babymother had sustained a gunshot wound to the neck, she was in stable condition. He anticipates that she will pull through.

He said, however, that the attack has left his three children traumatised.

He believes that the mother of his children would have died if he had not reacted quickly.

“Mi did see when mi babymother get shot in her neck back and lie down on the ground and mi haffi take off me ganzie (T-shirt) and wrap round her neck, but in the same time she a cry for her kids,” he said.

The poultry processing plant was closed on Monday following the tragic event which unfolded Sunday afternoon.

Christopher Levy, group president and chief executive officer of the Jamaica Broilers Group of Companies, said that the poultry producer would not reopen its doors until Wednesday.

“We've lost team members. We've lost friends and family, and it's a very difficult day when these sorts of events happen,” he said.

Levy said that Jamaica Broilers would be offering grief counselling to employees.

Senior Superintendent Christopher Phillips, commander of St Catherine South, told journalists that the police were certain that the event's approximately 300 attendees would provide enough witnesses to assist the investigation.

He said that the investigation was still in its infancy but was “progressing nicely”.

Phillips condemned the killings and pledged regular patrols by the police. He said that Sunday's incident was unfortunate because a police team had been in the vicinity of Gutters conducting vehicular checkpoints at the time of the shooting.

“Spring Village has been an area of concern ever since we had that flare-up of violence in Spanish Town. We have been watching this area because we recognise that there are persons who are connected to the conflict there in Spanish Town who also live in this area,” Phillips said.

Randy Finnikin, member of the South St Catherine Chamber of Commerce and executive director at Spring Village Development Foundation, said the group has had close bonds with the Ebanks family.

Finnikin said that the family is active in sports in the community. Sasha-Gaye was a former member of the local netball team.

“There is just this uncertainty. This community just does not know how to react and respond to something like this,” he said, adding that many residents had not reported to work and that classes at the Spring Village Development Foundation Institute had been suspended for the day.

“We are seeking help. We are not used to this,” Finnikin added.

The foundation is arranging trauma management support to help the community heal.

Finnikin was outraged at the message the shooters were sending by murdering Squire in a crowded venue.

Editor's Note: In an earlier version of this story, Jerome Squire was misidentified as Sasha-Gaye Ebanks' boyfriend. He was her uncle. We apologise for the error and any inconvenience caused.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com