Deleta Haughton, (left), is overcome with grief and has to be supported by a neighbour. Haughton's son, David was shot 14 times and killed as he walked near his home in the Seaview Gardens area yesterday. Haughton was one of two persons killed in the Hunts Bay police division yesterday.

THE police are blaming an influx of gunmen who have fled from Arnett Gardens for the upsurge in gun violence in the Whitfield Town area that has so far left nine dead. Two of the victims were killed in the community yesterday.
They are:

. 18 year-old Ricardo Mendez, who was shot in front of his home on Mission Road; and

. David Haughton, a 35 year-old painter of Phase II, Seaview Gardens.

Violence broke out in the Arnett Gardens community after rival gangs battled for community leadership, leaving four dead since Good Friday.

According to the cops, some of the gunmen have moved out of Arnett Gardens and have infiltrated the Whitfield Town area, fuelling a war which has been ongoing since last March.

This woman sweeps away the blood of David Haughton, who was shot 14 times in the Seaview Gardens Community yesterday. Police say at least four factions are at war in the area. (Photos: Joseph Wellington)

"Since the problems in Arnett Gardens, they have fled to the area and get into the conflict with persons here. The war is being fought here now," Superintendent Oswald Eyre, crime boss of the South St Andrew police division, told the Observer yesterday.

The war between rival gangs from the "Spade Corner" and men from Mission Road began last year when a dispute developed over the results of a community corner-league football competition.

Yesterday, Mendez was shot after a gunman jumped a wall from the neighbouring Galloway Road, walked up to him and shot him in his face and abdomen. The teen was taken to the hospital where medical staff pronounced him dead.

Residents in the area say the gunman was well-known in the community and say the ongoing war started when two men from Spade Corner were shot at a dance.

Police have confirmed the shooting and say the men were taken to hospital, treated and released.

"There are problems in Seaview. About four factions are at war," Superintendent Eyre said.

Residents of Phase II say three men in a white Toyota Corolla motorcar, drove up to Haughton yesterday as he walked about 50 yards from his home.

"Two of them come out and shot him up. The driver drive away and the two gunman run go over Marley," one resident, who claimed to have witnessed the murder, told the Observer.

Haughton was shot 14 times and died on the spot.
Others blame an ongoing war between gangs from the "Marley" and "Scheme Front" areas of Phase II, for Haughton's death.

Yesterday, Haughton's mother, Deleta Haughton, was grief-stricken and wailed uncontrollably for her son.

His 69 year-old father, Henry, sat calmly as neighbours worked hard to console his wife.

"A two son me have and them kill both of them almost same place," Henry told the Observer through tear-filled eyes.
But according to an officer at the Hunts Bay station, Haughton was no angel.

"His name was called as a gunman by persons from the other side. They probably saw him on the borderline and killed him," the officer said.

The fear factor

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS