Sunlight Street murders continue despite peace treaty
Published:Thursday | June 22, 2023 | 1:09 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The murder of a man along Maxfield Avenue in Kingston 13 on Monday was evidence that the area remains volatile despite a recent peace signing and talks by warring factions on Sunlight Street.
The drive-by shooting, which occurred about 5:30 p.m. at the Nelson Road and Maxfield Avenue intersection, claimed the life of 40-year-old Omar ‘Not Bram’ Hyde.
Hyde was a resident of Sunlight Street, where cronies-turned-enemies have divided the community and have been trading firepower resulting in a loss of lives and serious injuries.
“Anytime you hear ‘bout peace treaty or ceasefire, mi nuh buy dat. Is like the war pick up since dem say peace. It a gwan all over, not just here in Maxfield. A probability because they say peace made some people drop them guard, but not me,” a resident told The Gleaner on Tuesday.
The police and the military have been called in on several occasions to keep a watchful eye on the space because as one police divisional commander, puts it, “This gang violence has the potential to send the overall crime and murder toll upwards.”
This is the latest in a string of incidents that investigators believe have resulted from the Sunlight Street gang rift and has now resulted in bloodshed in several police divisions.
Reports from the Hunts Bay police are that Hyde was at the location, when a motorcar drove up and one man alighted. The attacker reportedly shot Hyde multiple time in the upper body before escaping.
Eyewitnesses say Hyde ran and collapsed on Sunlight Street, where he was assisted to the hospital and later pronounced dead.
On May 3, a double shooting along Barbican Road, St Andrew, in which a resident from the community was among victims nursing gunshot wounds, is believed to be linked to the ongoing violence.
Senior Superintendent Michael Phipps, head of the Kingston Western Police Division, told The Gleaner at that time that the deadly violence at Sunlight Street is between the ‘Phillipine’ and ‘Jack A Diamond’ factions.
SETTLING SCORES
Phipps told our news team that the community is a hot zone and the police have stepped up their operations, leading to gangsters settling differences outside the division.
The police say the gang war also resulted in the shooting death of Donovan Jackson on February 14 along Pechon Street in the Kingston Central Police Division.
In an act of reprisal, investigators say on May 27, thirty-eight-year-old Kenyatta Davis, a warehouse attendant of Sunlight Street, was gunned down in Spanish Town in St Catherine North.
A resident told The Gleaner that Hyde was not a gunman and that this made it clear that anyone from either side could get caught in the deadly conflict.
“Dem man deh nah fire no shot. Him deh everywhere, but because him live pon the front, dem go kill him out there. A front and back Sunlight Street a war and anywhere dem catch yuh, yuh doctor better live in a your top pocket,” a resident expressed.
Up to June 16 this year, the Kingston West Police Division had recorded a 22.6 year-on-year increase in murders.
This amounted to seven more murders than the 31 committed for the corresponding period in 2022.
Shootings in the division have declined by 16.7 per cent.
The islandwide murder toll stood at 597, representing a 13.35 per cent decline.