A triple killing in Sandy Bay, Clarendon yesterday was believed by the police to have been a targeted hit of a suspected gun smuggler who failed to deliver promised fire power to criminal gangs.

Roy Thompson, 50, who was murdered along with his 19-year-old son, Randy, and an unidentified nephew, is believed to have been killed for not completing an order for guns from him earlier this year, an illicit trade that police commissioner Lucius Thomas said has become far too prevalent in Jamaica.

The three were shot execution-style and their bodies dumped along a dirt track in a heavily vegetated gully near the exit of Highway 2000 in Sandy Bay.

“He is part of the whole organised crime situation in Jamaica,” said Commissioner Thomas yesterday, referring to Thompson, in an interview with the Sunday Observer at the Jamaica Constabulary Force 18th Annual Neighbourhood Watch Conference at the Ebony Park Heart Academy in Toll Gate, Clarendon.

The triple killing, he said, was a manifestation of the impact of the circle of the illegal gun, narcotics trade and the current “gang situation”.

The police had the senior Thompson under surveillance for at least a year, having picked up information about his gun-running connection to Haiti.

“These persons were involved in illegal activities (and) intelligence is pointing to the fact that one of the deceased was involved in gun trade between Jamaica and Haiti,” said George Williams, the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

Indications, said Commissioner Thomas, are that the gun trade between Jamaica and Haiti is on the rise.

“The intelligence is pointing to it being very prevalent, with men leaving Jamaica carrying ganja and coming back with guns,” said Thomas.

The police said Thompson, who was convicted for murder in 1973 and had served 10 years for the offence. He was suspected of transporting weapons from Haiti and selling them to criminal gangs operating outside of Clarendon.

“He actually confessed on one occasion that he had in fact gone to Haiti to collect the weapons, paid for them, but did not receive them,” Deputy Superintendent of Police, Radcliffe Lewis, the Acting Commander for the parish told the Sunday Observer.

The deputy superintendent said the Thompson was never convicted given that it was a “self-confession”.

“We cannot arrest him for ‘confession’ when we do not have the exhibit (evidence),” he explained.

He said several raids were carried out at Thompson’s Sandy Bay home, but each time the police came up empty-handed.

Lewis disclosed that Thompson began receiving death threats about three months ago from members of the gangs with whom he did business.

“… He collected the firearms but they (gangs) refused to pay him for them and as a result he refused to hand them over,” the deputy superintendent said. The young Thompson, Randy, was wanted by the Clarendon police for “shooting with intent”, Lewis said.

“A warrant was actually out for his arrest because he shot at a man who had warned him about his criminal ways,” said DSP Lewis.

The three were believed to have been killed in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Some residents, who spoke in hushed tones, said they heard the shots but declined to give any further details.

Thompson’s family were reluctant to identify themselves by name, though members of the community pointed out a woman said to be his wife and a teenager said to be his daughter.

The bodies were discovered by a man while taking his goats to a nearby pasture to graze.

The discovery caused a traffic pile-up on the toll road in the vicinity of the crime scene as several residents rushed to the scene. Curious motorists slowed to make inquiries.

Grief-stricken family members bawled shamelessly. Some fainted as the bodies, wrapped in plastic bags, were put in a Johnson’s Funeral Home van.

“Mi waan see me fatha fi di las’ time,” bawled a girl identified as Thompson’s teenaged daughter.

“Me bredda no live no life yet,” she cried.

martina@jamaicaobserver.com