An internal feud that turned deadly in a community known as ‘Common’, off Red Hills Road in St Andrew, and the slaughter of four family members at Retirement, St James highlighted a bloody weekend during which 14 persons were murdered and another 11 shot and injured.

Police say they suspect that a highly organised criminal network based in Common has begun to self-destruct, resulting in yesterday morning’s carnage in which four men were shot dead and six others injured.

The men killed yesterday morning have been identified as Anthony Simpson and his brother Everton Simpson, Richard Francis and a man known only as ‘Ezra’.

Among those in hospital is influential resident and political activist Cleveland ‘Cassie’ Downer, who along with four others, was freed of multiple murder charges arising out of the infamous 100 lane massacre in which seven persons, including three children, were killed and a number of homes torched in January 2002.

Downer was listed yesterday as being in serious condition.

Last night, at about 7:30, a man known only as ‘Turu’ was gunned down in the Red Hills Road area in an apparent reprisal killing for the slaying of four men.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green said the shootings were linked to differences between members of the Common gang.

“We believe it is very much internal. Members of the gang have taken out their differences against each other. They all have high-powered weapons,” Green said as he directed his troops at the crime scene.

Police say Downer and two of his cronies were standing in the community when a car drove up and the occupants opened fire, hitting them. Downer alone survived that assault, which was the first of three to be launched in Common yesterday.

The police say the bad blood began to brew over a $500,000 contract relating to the maintenance of a nearby gully. The area is loyal to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party and party supporters were distributing T-shirts and preparing to attend yesterday’s 63rd annual conference of the party at the National Arena when the guns started barking.

The police have named one suspect in the latest gun attacks. He has been identified only as ‘Dinero’.

According to Green, the security forces will be taking root in the area until calm is restored and the criminals are caught.

In Retirement attack, three gunmen shot dead four members of a family and injured three others at about 10:00 pm Saturday.

Yesterday, shocked neighbours recalled being awakened at around 10: 00 pm by gunshots, followed by blood curdling screams as the family fought off their attackers in a desperate attempt to save their lives.

Neighbours remembered Lyris Ellis-Johnson, 43, who was killed along with her son, Curtis Wilson, 17; daughter Kaya Wilson, 18, a recent graduate of the St James High School and stepson, Troy Johnson, 15, a student of Cambridge High School, as a jovial, outspoken Christian woman.

They told the Observer that the family – including Johnson’s husband, a technician, and her 10 and 16 year old sons, who have all been hospitalised – was at home when three gunmen kicked down a door to their five-apartment dwelling, entered the house and demanded the whereabouts of Johnson’s eldest daughter.

According to the neighbours, when the gunmen could not find the daughter, they opened fire on the family, who fought back and reportedly injured one of the attackers.

The daughter, who lives at the house, her two-year-old son and the sister of the slain woman, who lives nearby, are now in hiding. The infant was at the house at the time but was not harmed.

“From last night mi no sleep, mi caan’ eat,” Johnson’s sister told the Observer while she packed her belongings to leave the community. “Mi naaw stay here tonight.”

She said she had heard the shots but thought it was children in the community playing with scribbs. “Dem kill the whole a dem,” she cried. “When mi hear seh a mi sister dem kill and come out, who nuh dead a go a hospital,” she wailed.

The brutal slayings have pushed the year-to-date murder toll in the parish to 158, exceeding the 137 recorded for the same period last year.

One hour later in Kingston, one man was killed in Arnett Gardens. He has been identified as 25 year-old Nicholas Morris, also called ‘Sticky Pooh’. Police say they were summoned to Toure Pathway by residents who reported hearing explosions and when they arrived Morris’ bullet-riddled body was found.

Hours before, 40-year-old Paul Geddes of Bryce Hill Lane in August Town was gunned down while playing dominoes in a bar at Cooper’s Ridge District in rural St Andrew. Police say Geddes and two other men were attacked inside the bar by two gunmen.

In St Mary, one man is now in police custody after being accused of chopping his common-law wife at their home in Derry in the parish on Friday night. Police say they arrested the man after the dismembered body of Claudette Nelson was found in their yard. Police say the two had a domestic dispute which escalated into a fight during which Nelson was chopped several times.

Police have also reported the murders of 37 year-old Christopher Wright of Marley Meadows and an unidentified man who was found bound and shot behind the steering wheel of a stolen vehicle at Retreat Drive in St Andrew on Saturday morning. Police say the car was stolen from a parking lot after the owner went to a night club.

Wright was killed in East Kingston at about 4:00 am on Saturday. Cops found his body in the front seat of his Nissan Sunny motorcar with several gunshot wounds.

Keril Wright contributed to this story