MONTEGO BAY, St James – Gang attacks appeared to have surfaced again in Flankers, St James with three shootings and two deaths last week of residents caught in the crossfire.

Yesterday as tensions escalated in the volatile community, whose massive demonstrations in the past have locked down the city of Montego Bay, a community restaurant operator, Altiman ‘Jah Green’ Green, was shot to death at his place of business.

Green’s ‘Ras Greeny Vegetarian Restaurant’ was a popular eating spot located at the entrance to Flankers.

Saturday’s gun slaying of the popular community entrepreneur is the third shooting in the area since the start of the week and the second death in less than four days.

Last Tuesday night, an elderly woman was grazed in the head by a bullet after warring factions squared off in the area.

On Wednesday, Luke Smith, 19, was killed, reportedly in reprisal for the accidental shooting of the woman, when he left home for the grocery shop at around 11:20 pm.

Flankers, known for its volatility and frequent demonstrations, has been relatively quiet in frequent months. Residents, however, have reported a brewing gang feud in the community.

The police are downplaying the tensions, saying Green’s killing likely resulted from a foiled robbery attempt.

Investigating officer, Detective Corporal Kenrick Barnett, said that money that Green had when he left home was missing.

The restaurant owner was described yesterday as devoted to peace and justice, a counselor to many, who was always extolling the virtues of hard work and good manners.

“How dem fi kill Jah Greeny,” one woman wailed on the scene, overcome by the sight of Green’s bullet riddled body lying in a pool of blood on the floor of his kitchen.

His daughter, Camalla, who lived with her father in the community could only mutter: “Mommy, mommy, mommy,” as she reached to her mother, Green’s former common-law-wife, for comfort.

She later fainted and was taken to the hospital.

His son, a 12-year-old, who recently sat the GSAT examinations, could not cry. He just gazed vacantly, as a woman from the community held him tightly in her arms.

The most recent unrest in the low-income community resulted from a mistaken police killing of two senior citizens in 2004. This led to days of protest, which locked down the city and resulted in an apology from the police and remuneration for the families.

Flankers was selected as one of 15 inner-city areas to be developed by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), under the $29 million World Bank financed Inner-city Basic Services Project.

The project is to be launched there in May.