Mt Salem ZOSO breached again
Published:Monday | November 4, 2024 | 12:06 AMAdrian Frater/News Editor
Western Bureau:
For the second time in eight days, the zone of special operations (ZOSO) in Mt Salem, St James, was breached by gunmen last Friday with yet another brazen daylight murder, this time just metres away from the military post.
According to an eyewitness, shortly after 10 a.m., a man identified as Obrian ‘Archie’ Lawrence was walking along the community’s main road when a white Toyoto Axio motor car pulled up beside him, and the occupants opened gunfire on him, killing him on the spot.
Amid the gunfire, people in proximity to the scene, including the two soldiers at the military post located at the entrance to the Katon Lane section of the community, reportedly had to take cover as the killers sped away after leaving Lawrence sprawled out on the roadway, dying in his blood.
“De thing happen suh fast dat de two soldiers dem under the tent couldn’t do nothing but tek cover,” an eyewitness told The Gleaner. “Dem man do de dirt (killing) and just splurt (left). Dem neva business bout de soldier dem.”
‘No angel’
A police source, who confirmed the killing and the identity of the deceased man, said Lawrence was on the police’s radar for a long time and was implicated in several violent incidents.
“While we do not support this kind of activities by the gangsters, I can assure you that no angel died here today,” a policeman who visted the crime scene told The Gleaner. “This man has been linked to several gangland activities so what happened to him was not surprising.”
Lawrence’s killing marked the 112th murder in St James since the start of the year. St James is the only police division with more than 100 murders so far this year.
Lawrence’s killing also came on the heels of last week’s murder of 52-year-old mason Donavan ‘Pepper’ Hayles, of a Green Pond address, who was shot and killed on Campbell’s Lane, which is just about 100 metres from the military post on Katon Lane.
In that incident, Hayles and his common-law wife, who is also a mason, reportedly drove into Campbell’s Lane, where they were slated to carry out repair works on a step at a home. As soon as he exited the vehicle, he was reportedly pounced upon by five heavily armed men, who shot him multiple times, killing him on the spot.
‘No longer afraid of the soldiers’
With the latest killings and the police’s confirmation of an active criminal gang operating in the Katon Lane area, some residents are now questioning the effectiveness of the Mt Salem ZOSO, which was established on September 1, 2017 as the first such security initiative in Jamaica.
“When the ZOSO was first established, it was making a difference because the troublemakers were afraid of the soldiers, so they ran away,” a businessman from the community told The Gleaner yesterday. “Now it looks like they (the troublemakers) have all returned and they are no longer afraid of the soldiers.
“To be frank, having two soldiers under a tent is no more effective than two security guards at the entrance of a very big supermarket.”
A female resident, who said she was unimpressed with the state of security under the ZOSO in Mt Salem, especially with regard to the deployment of soldiers, said the soldiers are not being utilised properly and that she believed their legacy would be the number of children they have fathered in the community.
“How government fe train good good soldier and have dem siddung under tent a de lane mouth all day long not doing anything while badman a tek over back de community and people a dead?” asked the woman. “De soldier dem father nearly 30 pickney inna Salem since de ZOSO come … anytime yu hear the word ‘helmet baby’, a de pickney what de soldier dem get dem a talk bout.”