Despite heavy police presence and a call for restraint by area leader George Phang, violent eruptions continued unchecked in Arnett Gardens last night, and another life was snuffed out as violent factions kept up their assault on residents to drive them from their inner-city homes.

Ransford Matthews, 26, a suspect in at least one murder in the area, was shot and killed as he watched a game of scrimmage at Avon Park Crescent in the area.

As the game of football progressed, three men approached Matthews who only last Friday was released on bail, and chased him for a few metres before shooting him dead, police say.

None of the football players were injured in the incident.

Matthews’ body lay in a mangled heap along the roadway, riddled with at least a dozen bullets in his left side, back, face and head.

His sister, Charmaine, fainted at least three times as investigators examined the crime scene.

The police last night had no motive for the killing.

“We do not know if it is linked to the war that is now taking place,” an officer told the Observer.

That war continues despite a hastily-called meeting at the Jones Town Primary School on Wednesday night at which community don, George Phang, urged his supporters to exercise restraint and cooperate with the police.

“He asked the people to stop the war and stop beating and intimidating people to move out,” a resident, who attended the meeting told the Observer yesterday.

Besides Phang, the police, residents from the Jones Town and Mexico areas and Paul Burke, former chairman of PNP region three, were also there.

At the heart of the conflict is a push for leadership change, but there was no representative at the meeting from the faction of the community that rose up against Phang, the resident said.

Some Arnett Gardens residents have been calling for Phang and his son Andrew to leave the garrison community and make way for a new area leader.

On Wednesday scores of persons were forced to pack their belongings and flee the Angola, Pegasus, Brooklyn and Crooks Street areas, after gun-toting hardcases with big sticks and iron pipes beat them and ordered them out.

Gunshots also rang out as the warring gangs faced off.

Head of the Kingston West Police Division, Superintendent Gary Griffiths reported that two men were taken into custody for questioning during an operation along Septimus Street, in an area known as ‘Bibow’. They are suspected of being involved in the violence, the cop said.

Earlier in the day, there was a tense calm in the area and the usually busy community was like a ghost town.

Only one school, the Iris Gelly Primary in the Havana area, opened its doors to students.