Backwood residents fearful after one killed, four injured in gun attack
Published:Tuesday | October 11, 2022 | 12:10 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
To access this article in full please login or register today
WESTERN BUREAU: RESIDENTS LIVING in the small farming community of Backwood in German Town, St James, say that they have become a target for gunmen and are making an appeal for increased police presence in the area, following a shooting incident on...
WESTERN BUREAU:
RESIDENTS LIVING in the small farming community of Backwood in German Town, St James, say that they have become a target for gunmen and are making an appeal for increased police presence in the area, following a shooting incident on Sunday afternoon that left 21-year-old Gareth Leslie dead and four other men nursing gunshot wounds.
Leslie and other community members, including children, were reportedly at a shop when a group of men drove up in a white Toyota Vitz motorcar. Three men were said to have alighted from the vehicle and opened fire, hitting the deceased and four others, before escaping in the said vehicle.
The police were summoned and rushed the victims to the Cornwall Regional Hospital, where Leslie was pronounced dead, and the others treated and admitted.
Leslie's mother, Tamika Atkinson, who could barely contain her emotions, told reporters that her son was a jovial individual who was very humble and loved to work.
"My son never did anything to be killed the way them kill him," she bemoaned. "And since the start a the year, all of wi have to a run and hide from gunman and a full time it stop now."
The disgruntled residents, many of whom noted that they have spent all their life in the community, said that some of them are now unable to visit their farms as they fear losing their lives.
"Most a we as farmers have to a hide. The gunman them would a kill wi up yah. Wi can't stay out late, wi can't go a farm, and not even wi yard wi safe inna," one elderly farmer told The Gleaner.
He told The Gleaner that since the start of the year, two other members of their community, who are Leslie's close relatives, have also been shot and killed by the same group of gunmen.
"We have it hard in yah (community). Them kill the youth cousin, Richard Plummer, just up the road on February 8, then them kill him other family, Radson Foster, on Thompson Street in Montego Bay on September 5th. Then a youth name Adrian Senior, who witness them kill Richard, them kill him on March 16," he recounted.
Community members say the men behind the killing hail from a neighbouring community known as Sand Lane or Old Road. They also pointed out that the police have gotten reports from the community about the men.