With more than a dozen dead and at least 15 injured in the violence-torn Arnett Gardens section of West Kingston, the police high command yesterday dispatched a team of top cops to the area while the national security and education ministers sought to assure residents that they would be kept safe.

The police team is headed by Superintendent Delroy Hewitt and Deputy Superintendent Derrick “Cowboy” Knight. Members will report to the head of the West Kingston division, Superintendent Gary Griffiths, who has been severely criticised by residents on both sides of the conflict that has raged since Good Friday.

“As commissioner I am willing to give him all the resources he needs to do the job,” Police Commissioner Francis Forbes said, in support of Griffiths, during yesterday’s tour.

The introduction of the team of tops cops seemed to have brought the police instant success, as on their first day they nabbed two men who they believe are linked to the blood-letting which has lasted for almost three months.

One of the men has been identified as Horace “Andrew Ranjani” Murphy, while the other is only known as “Garry Prang”.

Murphy, who is a licensed firearm owner, was taken in for questioning and his gun confiscated.

Described as an area leader for a section of Arnett Gardens called Havana, he was held on the grounds of the Iris Gelly Primary School where DSP Knight relieved him of his weapon. Murphy was later taken to the Denham Town police station.

“His gun will be sent to the forensic laboratory for tests to see if it was involved in a double murder in Craig Town last week,” DSP Knight told the Observer.

Last Friday, two men – 26 year-old Marlon “Tanso” Allen of Pouyatt Street in Craig Town and a man known only as “Smokey” of Port Royal in eastern Kingston – were executed in a yard at 3B Pouyatt Street while police patrolled nearby.

Over 30 spent shells were found on the scene and sources in the area say the men were killed because they had robbed a delivery truck at the intersection of Lord and Bryan streets in the area the day before.

Garry Prang, police say, is wanted in connection with a number of shootings that have occurred in the area. He was held in the Mexico area yesterday morning.

As warring factions do battle over community leadership, many schools in the area have seen a fall-off in attendance by students whose fearful parents refuse to send them to school.

“My daughter don’t go to school too regular because too much gunshot and war and we don’t want to lose her,” Karen Williams, a resident of Jones Town explained.

This type of fear is what yesterday’s tour was aimed at combating.

“That is why we are here. To assure the parents that they can send their children to school without fear of any harm coming to them,” Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson told the Observer yesterday.

Henry-Wilson, along with National Security Minister Peter Phillips, Forbes and members of the police high command, toured the five schools which are situated in the Arnett Gardens/Jones Town area – Charlie Smith Comprehensive High, Trench Town Comprehensive High School, Trench Town Primary, Jones Town Primary and Iris Gelly Primary.

Since Good Friday, when Anthony “Chuncie” Folkes was shot and killed as he sat on his bike overseeing the distribution of Easter buns in the community, a deadly gang feud has broken out in the area.

Some sections of the community are calling for area leader George Phang to relinquish his community leadership role, while others, fiercely loyal to Phang, say he is the best man for the job.