A four-month-old baby girl, a nine-year-old boy and an elderly woman were among seven persons shot dead just before 3:00 yesterday morning when armed men went on a rampage in Rockfort, a tough community in East Kingston.

At the same time, a woman was burnt to death after her house was fire-bombed and a man was shot dead at a bar by gunmen in the volatile community of Newlands in the municipality of Portmore, St Catherine on Thursday night.

The dead in the Rockfort rampage were identified as four-month-old Lorna J Hurd; her 18-year-old mother, Shaneta Smith, and her father, 27-year-old Marlon Hurd; 19-year old Christina Brian and her mother, Violet Williams; 70-year-old Joanne Richardson and her nine-year-old grandson, Mutumbo Thomas.

The little baby, the police reported, was asleep beside her mother when several armed men invaded their tenement home at 12 Norman Crescent, pulled away the large piece of plyboard that served as their room door and opened fire on the baby and her mother, killing them. The child’s father, Marlon Hurd, who was in the house, was also shot dead.

“The front door wasn’t locked, it only looked like it was locked but it was just pushed up, so them know the house,” Marlon Hurd’s father and the baby’s grandfather, Jerry, told the Observer yesterday. “Anybody inna the house them see they would have killed. People hear them coming and stay quiet, but Marlon wake up and see them and them kill him. The baby mother dead in her sleep, she don’t even know what happen to her,” the elder Hurd said.

Surrounded by other grieving family members and well-wishers on the verandah of the house, Marlon’s mother, Jennifer Adamson, was a picture of grief yesterday as she grappled with the loss of her son and first grandchild.

“Me and Marlon is like man and woman; we live good. Marlon nuh mix up. Them couldn’t even just spare the baby,” said Adamson, before hysterically shouting, “Dem gone with Marlon.”

The killing spree continued at premises on Glasspole Avenue, a little way from Norman Crescent. This time the gunmen turned their weapons on Williams and Brian.

According to residents, the gunmen entered the home of the two women, pulled them both from their beds and pumped several bullets into their bodies. Both died on the spot.

The residents said a four-month-old baby who was in the house narrowly escaped death, apparently overlooked by the gunmen as they dragged the women to their deaths.

The rampage then continued at 12 La Cruise Road, where just after dawn, armed men kicked off the door to a house and killed Richardson, before turning their guns on Thomas.

Richardson was found in a kneeling position by the police, suggesting that she may have been pleading for her life before her death. Thomas’ nude body was found in a cellar beneath the house. Residents say he was preparing for school when the gunmen struck.

Yesterday, Deputy Superintendent Michael Ellis said the killings were possibly gang-related.

“We are looking at possible gang reprisals as the motive for the killings,” he said.