WESTERN BUREAU - The St James Police yesterday deployed additional personnel in the Norwood and Glendevon areas as a result of an upsurge in gun crimes, which has left one person dead and three others injured this week.

"Additional police personnel have been deployed in the area to counter the level of criminal activities," said Deputy Superintendent Cleon March, the crime chief for the parish. The additional manpower, he said, was drawn from the Special Anti-Crime Task Force.

At the same time, March said the police would be conducting what he termed as "targeted raids" instead of doing house-to-house searches. "When you do those things (house-to-house search), it comes with a lot of abuse. We are doing 'targeted raids' because we know who we are looking for," March said.

On Tuesday, ex-convict Dwayne Smith of Paradise Norwood was shot execution-style by gunmen on the grounds of the Norwood Basic School. Smith was shot at the back of the head and the bullet exited his left eye. At about 8:15 pm that same day, gunmen shot and injured a man who was on his way home from work. Relatives told the Observer that the man received more than 10 bullet wounds.

The police said that on Wednesday night, shortly after the Jamaica/USA football game, a group was at "Hollywood" - a community in Norwood - discussing the match when they were attacked by two gunmen who fired more than 15 shots at them. One of the men received bullet wounds to the hip and was last night still in hospital. The others escaped injury.
Minutes after that incident gunmen invaded a car wash at Hendon Norwood and shot a taxi operator who plies the Montego Bay to Hendon route. The taximan was hospitalised.

Yesterday, some Norwood residents claimed that the criminal activities were orchestrated by a group of men who were released from jail recently, after being held as suspects for gun-related crimes in the area.

Meanwhile, March said yesterday that the additional manpower would give the police the opportunity to cover a wider area over longer periods of time as they would be now working three shifts.

".We are doing foot patrols and mobile patrols in areas that traditionally we never covered, like Felecity Road, Hendon, Hollywood - areas where the shooting started."

Since January, 89 people have been killed in St James, with the majority from the Norwood/Glendevon communities.

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