MONTEGO BAY, St James - Police said yesterday that they were following strong leads arising from Thursday night's shootings which left a taxi operator dead and three others injured at a busy transportation hub in the second city.

Leebert Alexander James, 55, was shot and killed and an unnamed passenger and a passer-by shot and injured when two gunmen opened fire on the taxi stand along the teeming St James Street thoroughfare which serves some six communities in Montego Bay.

The shooting occurred in the vicinity of the volatile Gully community, where just that morning one man was shot and killed, bringing to eight the number of persons killed since the start of the week.

Three others were shot and injured in the Thursday morning incident.

The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) reported that four men were standing along Orange Street at about 5:00 am Thursday when a group of armed men approached them and opened fire, hitting all four. A man who was known by the aliases "Ugly Man" and "Grampa" was killed, while the others were injured and admitted to hospital.

Police say they are not dismissing the possibility that Thursday night's shootings could be reprisals for the early-morning incident but noted that this was not a lead they were following.

However, residents of the Orange Street area are alleging that the car in which James was killed was the one used in the shooting that morning.

St James police liaison officer Peter Salkey said the police were withholding the names and addresses of the injured as well as James' address, as they are following several leads and would not wish to jeopardise the investigations.

By nightfall yesterday, things had returned to normal along St James Street, the central transit point for persons from communities such as Norwood, Sunvalley Road, Dunbar, Mango Walk, Melbourne and Hendon. Persons were, however, expressing disbelief that such a brazen shooting had occurred in the city at such an early hour.

One taxi operator told the Observer that although he had been operating at least a mile away, he and others at the Flankers taxi stand at Sam Sharpe Square had to scurry to safety as they were not sure where the shots were coming from.

"I don't know what is happening in MoBay," he said.
While Montego Bay leads western Jamaica in terms of gun killings, police are admitting that this shooting is not normal in the second city. "I can't say what is happening; we do not have incidents like this here," Salkey told the Observer. "It is unusual."

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