Businessman and former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for the New Green Division in Central Manchester, Alvin ‘Texas’ Smith, was shot and killed yesterday, throwing his neighbours and friends on Gabby Street and nearby communities just outside Mandeville into deep mourning.

Smith, 49, the losing candidate for the New Green Division in the 2003 local government elections, was shot in early afternoon as he relaxed on the front step of his ‘Texas Ranger’ bar and auto shop, next door to his garage, at the entrance to Gabby Street.

He died shortly after at hospital.

When the Observer visited the scene just before 4:00 yesterday afternoon grief stricken relatives, friends and a large crowd of onlookers spoke in hushed tones as police investigators and journalists probed.

Blood stains on the step and on the side of the road marked where Smith fell and residents claimed gouge marks in the road and on the step were bullet holes.

A teary-eyed Jeroame Smith, son of the deceased, told the Observer how he was in the garage next door to the bar when he heard “a couple” gun shots.

“I never see what happened, I just hear di shot dem,” he said.

He ran from the garage in time to hear his sister cry out “dem shoot daddy”. He exited the garage to find relatives crouched over his dying father.

Jeroame said he never “hesitated” but placed his father in the back of his car and rushed him to hospital only to hear later that he had died.

Police investigators were tightlipped late yesterday but word in the community was that some residents saw “a short, black man” running down the road immediately after the shooting.

Yesterday, Mayor of Mandeville Desmond Harrison described Smith as “a great friend” who at one stage “serviced the vehicles at the parish council”.

“It is very unfortunate that we should lose such a valuable person in such a manner,” said Harrison.

In the 2003 local government elections Smith polled 741 votes in losing the New Green Division to the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Horace Williams who gained 1066 votes.