AT least five people met violent, weapon-related deaths on the first day of 2006, and up to late yesterday the police reported a sixth homicide for the new year – the shooting of an alleged intruder by a licensed firearm holder.

The police were also investigating two other deaths – those of:

. Janice Jarrett, 70, of Delve Land, Westmoreland, whose body was found in a cane field at Mias Muir in that parish; and

. Clarence Stewart, a 59-year-old farmer of Chocolate, Frankfield, Clarendon.

Stewart’s body was found near his tractor on a farm in Chocolate on Sunday, January 1, and the initial theory of investigators is that Stewart might have been the victim of a freak accident: that he fell off the tractor and was run over by the vehicle. A post-mortem, however, is to be conducted on the body.

In the case of Jarrett, whose body was discovered yesterday, the police offered no theory as to how she might have died, but an on-the-spot post-mortem was ordered.

With a record high of nearly 1,700 homicides last year and Jamaica’s emergence at the top of the world rankings for per capita murders, homicide figures, long closely followed here, are under increasing scrutiny.

In the case of the other deaths reported by the police, Jermaine Williams, 20, of Rose Heights, St James, was killed on Sunday afternoon during what the cops say was a dispute between Bal Bowen, 48, and Bowen’s 21-year-old son, Maurice. The Bowens have been arrested for murder in the alleged stabbing death.

Also in St James Sunday night, George Plummer, 20, Paradise, Norwood, was shot dead on James Street, Montego Bay.

According to the police, Plummer was sitting in a taxi when he was approached and shot by a man with a handgun. The man fled the scene. Plummer was pronounced dead at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

In the capital, two men were shot dead in a car at Lorraine Avenue, Kingston 10, on Sunday night. One of the men was named as Steve Stewart, 25, of Collins Path, Coburn Gardens, Kingston 11.

According to the police, residents on Lorraine Avenue heard gunshots at about 10:45 pm. Police investigators later found the two men in a Toyota Camry motor car that had crashed into a wall.

The other Kingston homicide was that of Lawrence Grant, 32, of Nyerere Close, Olympic Gardens, Kingston 11. Grant was shot on the road by unknown assailants yesterday morning.

In Mandeville, an unidentified man, about 27, was shot and killed by a licensed firearm holder at Caledonia Road, early yesterday.

According to the police, the firearm holder heard noises from a section of a building that houses a bar. He investigated the noise and was attacked by two men armed with machetes. He shot one of the attackers and the other escaped, the police said.

The police said that the machete used by the alleged intruder was handed to investigators.