A crime scene detective examines the area where an unidentified man was shot and killed on Dukharan Avenue in St Andrew yesterday. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

THE high level of violence affecting the country has continued unabated as rampaging gunmen murdered three persons, injured three others and fire-bombed four houses in separate incidents in the Corporate Area between Wednesday night and yesterday morning.

One of the dead persons, 34-year-old Icilyn Reid, also called 'Denise' or 'Man Royal', was attacked in the same yard where gunmen struck Wednesday evening, killing two persons and injuring five others. Yesterday, the police reported that a third person had died as a result of that shooting.

The police said they were summoned to the area after residents reported hearing explosions and found Reid's body lying in the yard.

Hours after Reid's murder, gunmen chased another woman in the adjoining community of Woodford Park and shot her several times. The police said a group of gunmen pounced on the woman at her Laidley Road home and opened fire as she tried to escape.

Sections of Allman Town have been under siege in recent weeks because of a feud between rival gangs from Wild and John streets.

Earlier yesterday morning the strife-torn community of Rockfort in east Kingston was the scene of fiery demonstrations as residents blocked sections of Windward Road to protest against the fire-bombing of four homes and the shooting of a man on D'Aguilar Road.

The roadblocks were cleared by police and soldiers, who later scoured the area searching for criminals as glum-faced residents looked on from the entrances to Noswad, Oliver and Warieka roads.

Residents of the community said armed thugs were intent on making their lives miserable. "When the fireman dem come fi out the fire the bad man dem point the rifle pan them and tell them say if them spray any water them a go spray them with bullet," one resident said.

The police also reported that several persons who were travelling from the Norman Manley International Airport were held up and robbed by gunmen in the vicinity of Rockfort yesterday. There were no reports of injury to any of the robbery victims.

Renewed feuding between heavily armed men from the 110 Link gang and a breakaway faction has been blamed for the recent flare-up of violence in Rockfort.

Superintendent Assan Thompson said a man known as 'Charlie Wap', one of the most wanted in the Kingston East Police Division, was one of the main players in the gang violence rocking Rockfort.

The police said Charlie Wap was a leading figure in the breakaway faction but switched allegiance after his 70-year-old mother, Joanne Richardson, and nine-year-old son, Mutumbo Thomas, were allegedly killed by his former cronies in October last year.

"We have learnt that he has since found refuge among the 110 Link and is now wreaking havoc on his former cronies," an officer at the Elletson Road Police Station told the Observer yesterday.

Yesterday gunmen also struck on Dukharan Avenue in St Andrew and murdered an unidentified man as he walked through the middle-class community.

Another man was also murdered at Maverly in Kingston during the heavy downpour yesterday afternoon. The man's bullet-riddled body was found on Clarion Road in the community, the police said.

The police also reported that influential resident of the 'Jungle 12' section of August Town, Andrew Walker, alias 'Mampie Zeeks', was shot and injured while waiting at a traffic light on Hope Boulevard in St Andrew on Wednesday night.

Mothers can't father

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'