THREE men were shot dead in Temple Hall, rural St Andrew yesterday in what Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) parliamentary representative, Andrew Gallimore, suggested was an attack by political types to maintain their stranglehold on jobs on a road resurfacing project.

However, up to last night, the police had offered no motive for the killings and earlier Michael Archer, the project officer on Surrey Paving and Aggregate’s $100-million contract to repave the Tom’s River to Stony Hill road, said he had noticed no political friction in which he had worked since the project began five months ago.

“There was no tension of which I was aware,” he told the Observer. “Both sides (JLP and People’s National Party supporters), all the communities were working together without any tension.”

The dead men include Howard Fuller, 42, a driver for Gallimore who was to have been the ‘community liaison’ officer for the Stony Hill community, where work on the road is about to begin.

The other two victims were Derron Crawford, also called Pound, of Rock River, and Glasford Collins, 42, known as Mr X, of Stony Hill.

The incident happened just after midday.

Fuller was sitting behind the wheel of his Toyota Caldina motor car and Crawford was in the front passenger seat. Collins was in the back of the car. The Toyota was parked outside the Surrey Paving project office on the Temple Hall road.

According to Inspector F Stewart of the Lawrence Tavern Police Station, four gunmen are suspected of the murders. They reportedly drove up in a Toyota Corolla station wagon and opened fire on Fuller and his colleagues. Fuller and Crawford died in their seats.

Collins seemed to have got out of the car and run, but was chased by the attackers and was cut down on the banks of the nearby Wag Water river.

The gunmen appeared to have escaped on foot. They left the Corolla parked a few feet behind Fuller’s Toyota Caldina.

Often in Jamaica unskilled jobs on public infrastructure projects are shared out along political lines, depending on the voting allegiance of the community in which the work is taking place. Usually, political activists are brought in as “liaison” officers to ensure that the jobs are distributed in accordance with the political support of the area. Sometimes, too, these so-called community leaders are awarded “contracts”, which critics say is usually nothing short of extortion.

Yesterday Gallimore, the MP for West Rural St Andrew, in which Stony Hill falls, claimed that his man, Fuller, had had no input in the distribution of jobs in the Brandon Hill phase of the project with the result of the process being “one-sided”.

His theory was that now the project was moving to Stony Hill people who were involved in the Brandon Hill phase felt threatened that they would lose their grip, resulting in yesterday’s killings. Fuller was to have been involved in the process.

Gallimore said that he had met with Surrey’s Archer hoping for greater community involvement and to ensure calm during the Stony Hill phase of the project.

“I asked that we manage the process so that there would be not even one drop of blood,” he said. “I believe that fighting over work brings out the tribal nature.”

Michael Archer, who said he was “very disturbed” by the killings, noted that it was the attempt to be even-handed and to avoid tensions why Fuller was at the Surrey Paving site office yesterday.

When the project started, all the parties agreed that casual labour, flag persons and skilled personnel living in the area being resurfaced would be employed, Archer said.

“I had indicated to Mr Fuller that by October we would be moving into the Stony Hill area and we had discussed getting workmen,” Archer told the Observer. “He called Friday and we agreed to meet today (yesterday),” he said.

That meeting was to have taken place at Surrey Paving’s head office.

“About 11:00 am he telephoned and said that he was in Temple Hall and would meet me at 2:30 pm at the site office,” said Archer. “I was on my way to the site office when I heard of the murders.”