A Kingston shopkeeper, who residents claimed had ignored a warning from gunmen to lock down her business after allegedly witnessing a double murder last week, was yesterday gunned down along the volatile Maxfield Avenue in the nation’s capital. One of her employees was also shot dead.

At the same time, police said gunmen, who they believe had killed shopkeeper Kerdel Salmon, 52, and her employee Warren Newby, later engaged cops in a shoot-out, injuring a constable from the Hunt’s Bay station.

“This is another chapter in the saga of violence in the area where young men with guns go around and kill innocent people,” said Deputy Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, commanding officer for the Kingston West Police Division.

According to the police, officers were responding to a mid-afternoon report of gunfire in the Maxfield Avenue area and when they went into the community two armed men engaged them in a gunfight on Raphael Road, during which the constable was shot in the arm. The two, the police said, then ran from the scene, but left a 12-gauge shotgun and six two-gauge cartridges during their escape.

The police said they then discovered Salmon and Newby were shot dead in a room at the back of her shop.

It was the same area where two men, 31 year-old Sean Wright, also called “Sean Paul”, and Anthony Edwards, also called “Matterhorn”, were killed last week Friday morning.

Wright was shot at the entrance of the shop and Edwards was killed in the middle of Maxfield Avenue, about 25 yards away.

Police, however, could not confirm a report that Salmon was ordered by gunmen to close her shop as she was suspected by them to be a witness in last week’s double murder.

“The motive at this time is unknown,” Hewitt said.

The gun-slaying of the two yesterday has brought to six the number of persons who have been killed as a result of a gang feud which has been re-ignited in the Maxfield Avenue area.

Other victims of the conflict were 48 year-old Henry James and Nakkiesha McLaughlin.

James was beaten with a hammer, stabbed all over his upper body and shot in the side. He died with $20,000 in his pocket.

McLaughlin was shot a few hours later outside a bar on Wellington Road by one of two men travelling in a Toyota Corolla motor car. One of the men exited the car with a gun and chased McLaughlin before shooting her several times. She died in the Kingston Public Hospital.

The sight at the death scene yesterday was stomach-churning. Both seemed to have tried to escape their killers by running into a small room but were apparently cornered and slaughtered. Salmon lay across a bed with several shots to her upper body. Newby’s brain lay splattered about the floor of the small room. His right eye was shot out.

The police said 11 9-mm spent shells were taken from the scene.

The killings caused two women, a young girl and a man to hold hands, kneel and pray out loud.

“You make the arrest God. There is too much violence. Too much blood. Help us Jesus,” a man prayed aloud at the murder scene yesterday.

“When the violence erupt they only pray but they won’t tell the police anything. The only name they call is Jesus,” one officer on the scene said.

“Jesus can’t stop gunshot,” a male onlooker said as they group prayed loudly.

Other persons were busy packing up their belongings and preparing to flee the area.

Police also reported that two other persons were killed in the neighbouring parish of St Catherine, yesterday.

People on the Bernard Lodge Sugar Estate, the police said, reported hearing gunshots about 1:00 am yesterday. About 10 hours later workers stumbled upon a body in a section of a canefield. He was identified as Casbert West of Cumberland in Portmore.

The police said West was taken captive by four armed men as he washed a Toyota Coaster bus at the owner’s residence in Cumberland. After firing shots the gunmen drove away the bus with West on board. Police say he was shot at least four times before being dragged and dumped into the canefield.

A trail of dried blood leading into the canefield was stark evidence of the crime.

Hours later 25 year-old Howard Harris, also called ‘Blue’, was cooking in his yard at Christian Pen in the parish when he was approached by two men armed with hand guns. The men shot Harris in his head and killed him on the spot before escaping. Police say four spent shells were recovered.

-walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com