Roehampton, St James – The police and army staged a surprise raid in this quiet farming community yesterday, but their massive show of force was too late to prevent the killing of a man and a woman who were gunned down in separate incidents near the Montego Bay resort city.

Showing grim determination, the brazen gunmen, in one case, first lobbed a molotov cocktail bomb into a house and opened fire as the occupants fled the blaze and smoke.

The dead persons, Mike Roy Rose, 21, of Rose Heights and Karen Lewis of Joan Avenue, Glendevon were slain within hours of each other between Friday night and yesterday morning.

According to police reports, Rose was shot several times by a gunman who pounced suddenly upon him, as he socialised with a group of men at a shop on Jarrett Street at about 8:20 Friday night in the western city. The shooter escaped in a waiting motor car. Rose was taken by police to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Almost five hours later, a group of men armed with guns and a molotov cocktail bomb, struck at a house in Glendevon, a suburb of Montego Bay. Fleeing the flames from the makeshift bomb, the occupants ran from the house into a hail of bullets. Police who were summoned to the scene discovered that Lewis was shot and injured. She died at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

In the raid at dawn yesterday, a large contingent of 80 cops and soldiers, swooped down on the normally quiet Roehampton. The crime team, led by Deputy Superintendent Rudolph Taylor, the head of operations in St James, recovered a Ruger 9-mm pistol with serial number erased, two magazines and 11 rounds of 9-mm cartridges, a pair of night goggles and a radar detector.

A Roehampton couple, Dunken “Ballie” Dowman and Tamika Christie, were charged in connection with the find.

Two persons, 65 year-old Edward Doeman and 30 year-old David Doeman were charged with breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act following the seizure of 10 pounds of ganja in the early morning raid. Three other persons were detained for questioning.

DSP Taylor told journalists after the raid that a total of seven houses were searched and the recoveries made. He said that the raid formed part of efforts to step up police operations in the wake of escalating criminal activities in the parish.

Taylor explained that the night vision goggles might be used by criminals to see police from a distance during the night. The radar detector, he said, alerted criminals on the approach of lawmen.

The senior cop vowed that the police would continue their fight to reduce criminal elements from the communities.

“We want to ensure the communities that we will continue our quest to keep the lid on criminal activities in St James. We ask you the citizens for your support as we continue the quest to rid your communities of criminal activities,” he said.

Last Saturday, six of St James’ most wanted criminals, and a teenage girl who had been reported missing from a state-run home, were among 15 persons detained during a joint police/military raid in Granville, St James. The previously quiet Granville area, police say, has recently become a hotbed of criminal activity.