Anthony Folkes, 48, a seeming under-boss in the community, was shot dead in Arnette Gardens yesterday, triggering warnings from angry residents that the incident could lead to an outbreak of violence.

There were claims in the community yesterday of a man being stabbed to death, in reprisal, in the aftermath of Folkes’ murder, but this was not confirmed by the police.

Folkes was sitting on his motorcycle at the corner of Ninth Street and Collie Smith Drive – overseeing the distribution of the regular Jamaican Easter fare of bun and cheese in the Pegasus area of the community – when he was cut down by men with whom he was apparently friendly. They ignored Folkes’ plea for his life.

“Some men that he knew called him over,” Folkes’ common law wife, who declined to have her name used, told the Observer. “They were talking, then they started shouting and then I heard him begging: ‘Don’t kill me’.”

She added: “They shot him while he was on the bike. He hopped off and started to run and as he was running they shot him many times.

“He got one in the mouth, heart and feet, plus the rest of his body.”

The police last night said they were searching for two men known as “Girl’s Man” and “Sticky Pooh” in connection with the killing.

Young men in the area used other names for the shooters and suggested that they may have been associated with a gang called both ‘Rough and Tough’ and ‘Big Link’, whose leader wanted to control the area.

“Them do it because they want to take over Jungle because Andrew and George Phang not giving them the chance to do what dem want to do,” one young man insisted yesterday.

Added another: “We want to see them (the shooters and their backers) die off or stay out of our community. Not even the police we want round here. They (the police) always come after people dead long time.”

However, Folkes’ son, Coy, 22, did not believe his father was killed because of any connection with the Phangs.

His father, Coy claimed, “talked to everybody” and his murder was likely to have been a spur-of-the-moment incident. “It was just a quick action that was not gang-related,” he said.

In fact, according to Coy, Folkes’ killers were at his Septimus Street home Thursday night when they even got cash from him.

“He knew the men,” Coy said. “They even get money from him. They were here, home last night. But it seems as if they got angry and killed him in haste.”

Said Folkes’ common law wife: “I think is grudge, because him help everybody and him always live down the bad vibes.”