NORWOOD, St James – A five-apartment house at Bottom Pen in this community was yesterday set ablaze in an apparent reprisal over the murder of Andre Turner, a 19-year-old chef.

A source with close ties to the area said the house was owned by a relative of one of the men suspected of being involved in the murder of Turner, who was shot next door to his house in the Bottom Pen area of neighbouring Glendevon while he was walking in the community earlier in the day.

Residents, many of whom had concerns about the increased crime in the community, watched helplessly as the fire brigade fought to put out the blaze that engulfed the five-apartment board and concrete structure.

They were, however, tight-lipped about yesterday’s fire and some were overheard telling others not to speak openly about it.

“When you come a dem place yah you look and no talk,” one woman told her friend who had remarked that the house would now “teck money” to rebuild.

Sergeant Langley Martin of the St James Fire Brigade said firefighters arrived on the scene at 5:40 pm, but were unable to prevent the destruction of the house and its content.

Police and soldiers have recently been deployed to Norwood following a bloody upsurge of gang violence in the area in recent months which claimed several lives and culminated in the shooting deaths of five residents in July.