THREE men were killed within of six hours in the volatile Maxfield Avenue area of Kingston yesterday.

The dead men have been identified as 31 year-old Sean Wright, also called “Sean Paul”, Anthony Edwards, also called “Matterhorn”, and 48 year-old Henry James, also called “Verrol”.

Wright and Edwards were killed when they went to purchase goods at a shop on Maxfield Avenue at about 7:30 in the morning.

“They were attacked by a group of gunmen who opened fire,” Corporal Dorel Jackson of the Constabulary Communications Network said yesterday.

Wright was shot at the entrance of the small shop, and it appeared that Edwards tried to escape but was chased by his attackers and shot a number of times about 20 yards away.

Police said they recovered a number of 9mm spent shells from the scene.

Both men lived at nearby Sweatenham Road and the police said they believe members of a gang which operates in the Ramsay Road area were responsible for the double killing.

The police yesterday released the aliases of four men who they are hunting in relation to the latest double murder.

The men, the police said, are known as ‘Government’, ‘Bull Head’, ‘Raper’ and ‘Papa’ and are the main members of the Ramsay Road gang.

At the murder scene, scores of women and children and a sprinkling of men gathered behind police tapes to get a look at the gruesome sight of the bullet-riddled bodies. As is the norm at crime scenes, no one witnessed the incident.

“As I finished sweeping outside my yard and go inside me hear the shot them and get flat. I never see what happened,” one woman said.

Bullet holes could be seen in Wright’s head, back, and right arm. A large chunk of his chin was also missing as he lay spread-eagled in a pool of blood. One foot of his black Reebok sneakers lay about six feet away from his body.

Edwards’ body lay face down in the middle of the road as flies hovered over his blood.

As funeral home attendants removed the bodies, a number of women burst through police tapes and converged on the bodies.

“Lord God them kill the two youth them innocent,” one woman wailed as she was restrained by an officer.

Sources in the area said the killings were linked to the June slaying of a man known as “Raymond” and “Blacks”, who was shot in a taxi at the intersection of Fitzgerald Avenue and Forester Road and spent three days in hospital before he died from his wounds.

Blacks was allegedly killed by men from Ramsay Road who had used Sweatenham Road as their route to Fitzgerald Avenue. Men from Sweatenham Road have since refused the members of the Ramsay Road gang passage through their turf, resulting in bad blood brewing between men from the two streets which almost face each other on opposite sides of Maxfield Avenue.

Wright and Edwards were killed because they left Sweatenham Road and went across the street into the territory of the Ramsay Road gang, a source in the area said.

James was killed in his yard at Rodney Road at about 1.30 pm. His attackers shot him once in the left side, then stabbed him in his forehead, chest arms, stomach and side. He was also bludgeoned with a hammer which police recovered from the death scene. James’ ear was badly mutilated.

The South St Andrew police are investigating the murder and have ruled out robbery as a motive as $20,000 was found in James’ pocket. His death has left four children fatherless.