AGONY & PAIN as 5 y-o KILLED: Denham Town ‘Madness!’ - Kingston Western MP decries shooting of five-year-old girl.... Violence won’t end until residents stop shielding relatives — McKenzie

RACQUEL PORTER Observer staff reporter porterr@jamaicaobserver.com  Monday, September 05, 2016    

Kingston Western Member of Parliament Desmond McKenzie yesterday decried the upsurge in violence in the community after the shooting of a five-year-old girl on Tulip Lane in Denham Town.

Agony and Pain

“This is madness, madness that has gone beyond any sense of reasoning. For the last couple of weeks I have been in touch at the highest level with the police in regards to the latest upsurge and the fact that the upsurge has been intensified. We have seen several persons being shot; some have lost their lives. In the past four days this section of the area has been under constant attack,” McKenzie told the Jamaica Observer.

The five-year-old was among four people shot and injured in a drive-by yesterday afternoon. Up to press time yesterday she was said to be in critical but stable condition.

The incident is the latest in a spate of shootings across the city in recent weeks, which police theorise is related to gang warfare over turf. It is the second to directly involve a child. Late last month two-year-old Demario Whyte was killed and his father and another man injured in a drive-by at the corner of Luke Lane and Beeston Street. Kingston Western Member of Parliament Desmond McKenzie yesterday decried the upsurge in violence in the community after the shooting of a five-year-old girl on Tulip Lane in Denham Town.

Residents of Denham Town in West Kingston yesterday
gathered at the side of the ambulance that transported
 the child from the Kingston Public Hospital to the
 Bustamante Children’s Hospital. (ANTONIO)

“This is madness, madness that has gone beyond any sense of reasoning. For the last couple of weeks I have been in touch at the highest level with the police in regards to the latest upsurge and the fact that the upsurge has been intensified. We have seen several persons being shot; some have lost their lives. In the past four days this section of the area has been under constant attack,” McKenzie told the Jamaica Observer.

The five-year-old was among four people shot and injured in a drive-by yesterday afternoon. Up to press time yesterday she was said to be in critical but stable condition.

The incident is the latest in a spate of shootings across the city in recent weeks, which police theorise is related to gang warfare over turf. It is the second to directly involve a child. Late last month two-year-old Demario Whyte was killed and his father and another man injured in a drive-by at the corner of Luke Lane and Beeston Street. more