BLOODBATH - Quadruple killing brings tension, tears to quiet Planters Hall

The sound of gunshots pierced the air in the dead of night in the usually quiet community of Planters Hall in Old Harbour, St Catherine, early Friday morning as six gunmen snuffed out the lives of four residents in two separate attacks.

At the end of the murderous rampage, 31-year-old Richard Wright and his 27-year-old brother, Omar Wright, along with their cousin, 49-year-old Lester Harvey, and 18-year-old Nordia Thomas, Omar’s pregnant girlfriend, laid dead.

Family members and residents gathered yesterday morning to process the night of terror as detectives combed the two premises. They expressed shock that such savagery had manifested in the community.

Omar and his girlfriend Nordia, who shared the same house with Harvey, were attacked first when the men kicked in their front door. They then went to the premises across the road and called out Richard Wright, who lived in a one-room wooden structure, and shot him multiple times. His mother and stepfather, who live in a separate structure on the same premises, were not hurt.

“I don’t know them as any troublemakers. Both of them do their little farming and everybody love them in Planters Hall,” stepfather Keith Rhoden told The Gleaner.

“They were good youths, who would find time to help anyone in the community who requested help of them. I can only count my blessings because I could have been killed based on the amount of shots that they fired,” he added.

Shouts of “Police!”

Rhoden said that he was in bed with his wife when he heard a barrage of shots followed by a period of silence. He then heard footsteps in his yard followed by a knocking on Richard’s door and shouts of “Police!”

“I then hear a whole heap of shots. I heard Richard cry out and then the shooting stop. I waited for a while and then went to see what had happened. That is when I saw him lying at the door bleeding,” Rhoden said.

Yesterday, the bloodstained mattress on which Omar and Nordia slept was a grim reminder of the terror that unfolded.

“Only the news of who kill mi two bredda dem and mi cousin can help mi,” wailed a woman at the scene as she sought to soothe her grief with cups of what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage. “Only mi two bredda help tek care of mi children dem. Now dem kill dem, what a go happen?”

It was a refrain that kept ringing as tension and tears gripped the rural St Catherine farming community.

“We need to know what is going to happen as it was a real wicked act that took place here,” said Marigold Newman. “We tremble at the memory of wi relatives. We need help.”

“I know dat Richie and Lester work very hard, but Omar give little trouble here and there, but it is a sad situation,” a male relative said.

Residents speculated that the killings were a hit as there was some disagreement with persons from outside the community.

A police officer at the scene yesterday told The Gleaner that they were following leads to establish a motive and try to identify the hoodlums responsible.

“We are unable to say more other than it was an heinous incident that will be thoroughly investigated,” he said.

Yesterday’s bloodbath comes on the anniversary of a similar quadruple killing in Dover district in St Catherine last year. In that incident, three men and a woman were also killed.

That incident is still being investigated by the police.

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