THE scene at the communal yard on Avon Park Crescent, Kingston 5, was deceptively normal yesterday. People did normal things, like washing dishes and hanging clothes to dry.

Except the air is thick with an unspoken tension. And a mangy mutt sniffs the two blood-darkened spots on scruffy, brown earth near an old, rusty refrigerator. Then there is an off-hand remark by a women, to no one in particular.

“Tonight most of us have to look place to sleep,” she said. “For we nah sleep ya because we are not safe here.”

Not safe, because of what had happened in the tenement yard Tuesday night. Andrew Brent, 27, who lived at the premises, and a 15-year-old boy, identified last night only as ‘Pops’, of 11 Penrith Road, Kingston 5 were shot dead in the yard – one of three double murders reported by the police between Tuesday night and early yesterday.

At the Vaon Park Crescent premises, no one talked much about the killings. None knew why Brent and ‘Pops’ might have been killed.

Some people, however, said that three weeks ago seven gunmen went to the yard, kicked off the doors to the various apartments and robbed people of electrical appliances and money. One man was shot and injured in that incident.

On Tuesday night, according to the police, the Avon Park residents heard gunshots just after 10:00. They called the police, who later discovered the bodies.

There was a similar, angry, sullen withdrawn refusal to speak in the Anderson Road area of Kingston 5, where two men – Komar Alllen and Morris Morgan, both 22, were shot dead. A third man, also aged 22, was shot and injured.

According to the police, at about 1:25 a m shooting was heard in the area. When cops responded to the report they discovered the bodies of Allen and Morgan as well as the wounded young man who was admitted to hospital in a stable condition.

Police said that 21 9mm bullets were found on Allen’s body. A young woman, who declined to give her name, but said to be Allen’s sister, said she wasn’t at home at the time, so didn’t know what had happened.

“What them kill him for?” she asked.

In Virginia, Manchester, 20-year-old Bjorn Hall and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tanya Martin, were tied together shot dead. Both were from Gabby Street, Greenvale, Manchester.

According to the police, residents of Virginia, said they heard gunshots at about 3:00 a m, but the bodies were discovered on a road in the community about four hours later.