GRISLY RAMPAGE
17-y-o gunned down; infant battling for life after house set ablaze in Westmoreland
Published:Saturday | November 27, 2021 | 12:09 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
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WESTERN BUREAU: A Westmoreland family is struggling to come to grips with a deadly home invasion on Thursday night, which left a 17-year-old boy dead and other relatives injured as gunmen lit their board dwelling and opened fire at the occupants,...
WESTERN BUREAU:
A Westmoreland family is struggling to come to grips with a deadly home invasion on Thursday night, which left a 17-year-old boy dead and other relatives injured as gunmen lit their board dwelling and opened fire at the occupants, including a three-year-old, as they fled the blaze.
Delano ‘Deano’ Spence, who suffered multiple bullet wounds, was killed in the incident.
Three other members of the household, including the infant, were shot in the melee, which unfolded less than an hour after Opposition senators voted against extending a state of emergency in the parish to tackling rising crime.
According to reports, about 9:30 p.m., Spence was at home in Hartford with his mother, stepfather, sister, and his sister’s three-year-old daughter when they observed fire coming from a section of their board house.
As the family tried to exit the house, they were greeted by gunfire from hoodlums lurking in the yard. The gunmen then fled the scene.
Spence, his mother, stepfather, and his niece all suffered multiple gunshot wounds. His sister escaped unharmed.
Residents of the community, who responded to the shooting and the cries of distress, assisted in putting out the fire and summoned the police.
On the arrival of the police, the injured family members were rushed to a medical facility, where Spence was pronounced dead and his injured relatives admitted.
Spence’s mother, who was shot in the face, and the child had to undergo emergency surgery and are said to have sustained life-threatening wounds.
The shooting has taken the community, including other relatives, by surprise.
“I don’t know what could have happened for this to take place. My sister is a good woman and Delano is not a bad boy,” said a close relative, who also lives at the address but what not home when the bloody attack unfolded.
“Delano only give little trouble ‘round the yard, but him don’t give trouble out a road, so to be honest, I don’t know how this manage fi happen to them,” she said.
The Westmoreland police, who have launched an investigation into the incident, say they are expecting to make an early breakthrough in this, the 10th homicide in the parish over the past 12 days.
In the meantime, Superintendent Robert Gordon, commanding officer of the Westmoreland Police Division, said that a man has been charged in connection with the murder of 25-year-old trainee police DuVaughn Brown, who was shot dead on the night of November 24.
Brown, a student of the National Police College who was on internship in the Manchester Police Division, was killed by armed men in Naggo Town, his home district.
The accused killer, whose identity has not been released, is charged with murder and illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.
Since the start of the year, in excess of 100 persons have been murdered in Westmoreland, sections of which are being rocked by gang violence, especially the parish capital, Savanna-la-Mar.