The relative calm in the one-time war-torn Grant’s Pen community in North East St Andrew was shattered on Friday when gunmen shot dead 30 year-old Elmeta Anderson of Andrews Lane in the area.

Anderson, whose murder the police say is the first in the area since the start of the year, was brutally cut down in a hail of bullets by men who the police say are from Grant’s Pen.

Detective Sergeant Harris Wilkie of the Area Five Criminal Investigation Bureau told the Sunday Observer yesterday that the police are maintaining a presence in the area.

“The guys are from the area. We have an idea who the persons are but we are doing some more investigative work before we make a move,” Wilkie told the Sunday Observer.

The detective said that while the area has been “partially calm” for some time, it had not been “all that quiet” as there had been a murder on the same street last December.

According to a report from the Constabulary Communication Network, Anderson, who was employed as a cashier at the University Hospital of the West Indies, was walking along Andrews Lane at about 1:30 pm on Friday when she was pounced upon by three men armed with guns who shot her several times. She died on the spot.

But Anderson’s mother, Lilieth Jackson, believes her daughter’s death was an accident.

“I hear that she going to work and she hear the gunshots ’cause it look like it was somebody else them was firing after and she run but the bullets them catch her,” Jackson recounted.

She said Anderson, who was her eldest daughter, was not the “warring type” and was very friendly.

“Mi can’t cope with it, she is mi first daughter, she don’t love war, she don’t like the mix up,” the grieving mother told the Sunday Observer.

Jackson said Anderson’s 12 year-old son has been helping her keep the tears at bay.

“Him keeping up, him tell mi seh mi mustn’t bawl,” she said.

dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com