THREE men were Monday night shot and killed by gunmen in Kintyre, a depressed community in Eastern St Andrew, in what police theorise was a reprisal shooting.

Police identified the dead as:

* Deno Williams, 24, a construction worker of 1 Quarry Heights;

* Phillip Warren, 28, labourer of 232 St Josephs Heights; and

* Dave Melbourne, also called “Ice”, 27, of Quarry Heights, all of Kintyre.

A fourth man, Orlando Lewis , 26, a labourer of Lot 7, St Joseph Heights, Kintyre, was shot and injured and was admitted to hospital in serious condition.

The killings forced some fearful residents to leave Kintyre yesterday, adding to a number who have left the community over the past few weeks since a flare-up of violence in the area.

Meanwhile, the police yesterday beefed up security in the community. A police source said 60 officers who were dispatched to the area to do foot and mobile patrol would remain there for another two weeks.

According to the police, at about 7:00 pm Monday, the men were sitting outside the A&T wholesale grocery shop at Quarry Heights when four men travelling in a green Nissan Sunny motor car opened fire, hitting the four men.

Williams and Melbourne were killed on the spot, and Warren died while undergoing treatment at hospital.

Police said they picked up 22 spent shells for M16 rifles, two 9mm shells and three live 9mm cartridges at the scene.

A police investigator told the Observer that the killings were the “result of an ongoing political gang feud between PNP (People’s National Party) gang members and JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) gang members”.

The officer explained that the fighting began last Friday when a known PNP activist, Jermane Fender, 22, of Kintyre was shot and injured along the Kintyre main road. In an alleged reprisal shooting on Saturday, JLP supporter, Agustus Morrison, 54, of 404 St Josephs Close, Kintyre was shot and killed.

“This triggered off a chain of reprisal gang war and shootings in the community… the end result is the killing of these three men who are said to be JLP supporters,” the investigator said.

Garrette Stennett, a brother of Melbourne, said he was awakened by heavy gunfire Monday night, and heard men running past his home at River Lane.

“When me come up a the road me see three man dead in a the road. A dey so me see my brother Dave lie down dead, a bleed, me neva even look whey him get shot how me frighten,” he said, pointing to a section of the road stained with blood. Stennett said his brother had just left the house after watching Schools Challenge Quiz on television. “Me breda was not in any gang war ting,” he sobbed.

A resident, who requested anonymity, said he heard that gunmen sent a message that they will be cleaning up the place in reprisal of Saturday’s killing of Fender.

“Last weekend a pure gun shot down here you know sah. The place come in like a battlefield down a Iraq, all now me body weak,” said the resident.