‘CAPTURE Land’, once a thriving squatter settlement located near the train line along the Greater Portmore main road in St Catherine, was up to last month home to 500 people – more than a third of them children.

Today it is, however, deserted. No children playing. Men and women who once traded flower pots in the area are no longer there.

In fact, last week the only form of life in the area was a noisy pack of meagre mongrel dogs.

The residents were forced to flee the area after gunmen killed three of their neighbours and threatened to take more lives.

“They say they going to come back and burn down the whole community,” said a woman who used to live with her three children in Capture Land before the forced migration.

A few pulled apart their humble board dwellings and took the materials with them as they sought to find another place they can call home. There are now open spaces where at least 10 of the approximately 60 board houses were pulled down.

The murder of the three Capture Land residents – Anthony Hunter, 19; Cletha Atkinson, 23; and Paul Henry, 34 – almost a month ago, was said to be linked to the shooting death of John Taffe in the area a week before. The killers were said to be from Big Lane, a tough community in Central Village near Spanish Town in St Catherine.

The Capture Land residents had told the Observer that in the aftermath of the triple killing, the police said they would have been unable to provide constant protection and had advised them to leave the area.

While not confirming this claim, the Greater Portmore police said they escorted a family from the area to get their belongings from the area and move out.

“We went with them so they could get their things without being attacked,” a police officer from the Greater Portmore Police Station said.

The forced exodus of the entire community has put a strain on the former Capture Land residents as they have had to relocate at short notice and are now staying with persons at different locations in St Catherine and the Corporate Area.

Most of the children in the area attend the Gregory Park All Age School and have been severely affected by the move.

“The children have it hard and we feel it for them more than anyone else. Many of them have to be ‘kotching’ at other people’s place and it must affect their learning,” the resident said.

And a woman who used to live and operate a small business in the area, complained that her income has dried up.

“I have five children and from the happenings me can’t send them to school or nothing. Business dry up and I have to send them to stay with my family in the country,” the woman said, “We (were) not involved in any war with no one”.

The police have, in the meantime, noted that Capture Land was a hideout for fugitives who committed crimes elsewhere. Six people, the police said, were shot and killed in the community up to the time the residents decided to vacate the area.

Capture Land was also home to small scale tradesmen, higglers and labourers.

About 200 metres away from Capture Land, on the other side of the Greater Portmore main road, is Cedar Grove, while below is Christian Gardens, a National Housing Trust development.