Within a 14-hour period between Friday afternoon and yesterday morning, seven people were fatally shot and two others wounded – including a constable assigned to the Special Anti-crime Task Force. The killings are likely to fuel more concerns about the country’s runaway murder figures.

Last Thursday, the private sector announced that they had planned an islandwide shutdown for Wednesday. The move, they said, was aimed at nudging the government into taking action that will curb the climbing murder levels. Up to last Thursday, more than 600 people had been killed so far this year. Many others have been injured.

Among those is the cop who was shot at about 1:30 yesterday morning as he and a female companion were walking home from a dance in the Rose Hall section of Linstead, St Catherine. He was treated and released from hospital.

Meanwhile, an 18 year-old who was wounded during a shooting on the Scuba Pen main road in Old Harbour, St Catherine, at about 5:00 pm Friday is still in hospital. Twenty-two year-old Dale Anderson, who was shot during that same attack, died from his wounds. The police say both men were shot as they walked along the road.

Also in St Catherine, 32 year-old barber Ivan “Lassie” Carr was gunned down in a barbershop on Oxford Street in Spanish Town at about 4:10 pm on Friday. Others killed during the period include:

. an unidentified man between 30 and 35 years old who was killed along Spanish Town Road in St Andrew Friday night;

. 31 year-old Gladston Polson was shot dead in his car in Belmont district, St Andrew at about 9:45 Friday night;

. 37 year-old Alvesta “Batta” Jarrett from Fuller District in Granville, St James; and

. Audley “Ticker” Ottey who was shot along Graham Street in the Dunkirk area of Kingston 16 at about 6:55 yesterday morning.