Teacher shot in home attack
Published:Tuesday | April 16, 2024 | 12:10 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
A teacher has been hospitalised with chest and upper-left side wounds after gunmen smashed open a window to her St Andrew home and opened fire in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
The incident occurred sometime after 3 a.m. in a section of Lawrence Tavern, St Andrew, called Burnt Shop.
Investigators have theorised the educator, who recently moved to the area, may not have been the target of the attack.
The shooting has left the farming district on edge.
A resident of the community told The Gleaner that it took them by surprise.
“We never come out when we hear the shot dem, but as soon as it was safe to do so, people gather up and we hear some mumbling … . Is not really she dem go for. Anybody in the house could have got shot and died. Luckily, that was not the case, but she must ‘fraid now like we, especially the elderly,” a resident told The Gleaner.
A source close to the investigation corroborated what some residents were saying.
“A never she dem go fah, … but the teacher son hear the dog a bark and gone outside gone look … . When him go, somebody grab offa him and him run back inside … . Then the gunman dem go ‘round a the back window and bruk in the window and shoot up inside. A so come the lady get shot,” the anonymous source said.
A senior investigator told The Gleaner that the police are following all leads and are seeking to restore calm to the community.
Between January 1 and April 13 this year, the St Andrew North Police Division recorded 21 shootings.
This represents a 31 per cent year-on-year increase, or five more shootings than seen in the corresponding period in 2023.
Where injuries are concerned, there were 16 cases, three more than the corresponding period last year.
In the murder column, the division recorded 13, which is a decline of seven per cent or one fewer year on year.
The national murder toll now stands at 311.