Deadly gunfire disrupts school devotion
Security to be reviewed after armed crook scales fence
Published:Friday | December 15, 2023 | 12:14 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter -
Devotions at the Gregory Park Primary School in St Catherine were disrupted by the sound of gunfire on Thursday morning as the police and an alleged gunman traded bullets on the premises, ending with the death of the unidentified man.
The man, who The Gleaner understands is a former student of the Portmore-based institution, had scaled the school’s perimeter wall shortly after 8 a.m. in a bid to escape the cops, but he was chased and cornered.
Principal Richard Williams said it was a frightening situation for students and staff, some of whom were not accustomed to hearing such explosions, and it caused great concern over the safety of the school community.
He intends to meet with the relevant personnel in short order to hammer out strategies to enhance security measures at the institution.
“As a school, we definitely intend to meet with the school board, and our report to the ministry would definitely include [an assessment of] the safety and security of our school. Our school has a perimeter wall right around it – all 800 metres of it – but, at this time, based on what occurred, it would be prudent for us to add to that with some razor wires to raise it ... and, hopefully, if we can get some closed circuit TVs (CCTV), that would be good,” Williams told The Gleaner.
He said these and other measures could be considered to prevent a recurrence or minimise risks.
“The incident that occurred would have impacted the entire school population, both teachers and students,” Williams said.
“We treated it like an evacuation drill. So, once we heard the gunshots ... we quickly got into safety mode. Everybody got down in their classrooms and closed the doors until it subsided. I checked on students and teachers then moved everyone to one locale,” Williams shared.
The principal said that the students received counselling and were later released into the care of their parents and guardians, many of whom made a frantic rush to get to the school as news of the incident began to spread.
The Ministry of Education and Youth is to send a team to the institution on Friday for further counselling, as they also have their class parties.
The St Catherine South police theorise that the deceased man and at least two of his cronies were en route to carry out a reprisal attack following a murder in the space on Tuesday.
A black and gold Taurus pistol containing three live rounds was reportedly retrieved from the gunman.
The Independent Commission of Investigations is probing the fatal shooting.