A series of recent murders in the St Andrew South Division has left cops at their wits’ end.

According to the police, their resources have been stretched thin as they try to curtail outbreaks of violence in at least seven communities.

Just under 30 persons have been murdered in the division since January 1, and senior officers said based on the current rate, homicides could top the 223 mark set in 2008. The island recorded a total of 1,611 murders last year.

“Things just breaking out in the (St Andrew) South. All the effort we putting in place, things are just breaking out more and more in the place,” a frustrated Deputy Superintendent William Christie of the Hunts Bay Police Station told the Observer Tuesday.

“It’s really rough, trust me. We have too many conflict areas breaking out at once and we don’t have the resources to deal with all of them at the same time. The whole thing is just out of control,” lamented Christie while patrolling the area which saw three murders between late Monday night and Tuesday morning.

The latest murders occurred on Calladium Crescent and Galloway Road where two men were shot in separate incidents. Police have so far identified the men as 29-year-old Richard Reid, who goes by the alias ‘Ants’, and Ian Newman, 45, otherwise known as ‘Mighty’.

Only hours earlier on Monday night, 44-year-old Angella Dick of Australia Road was shot dead at her business place on Spanish Town Road in what the police surmise was a contract killing.

Dick, DSP Christie said, was a witness in the murder trial of her son ‘Bull’ who was shot dead a few years ago on Kidd Lane. Police said that a lone gunman drove up to her bar and ordered a phone card before spraying her with bullets.

“A man is now in custody in connection with her son’s death and based on how the whole thing happened, it seems a hit could have been sent on her life,” Christie said. “The other men might have been killed because of gang feuds in those areas. Men just walk up with them gun and shoot them, that is how the place is running.”

No leads have been established in any of the incidents.

While commending communities such as Payne Avenue, Greenwich Farm, Whitfield Town, Maverley, Drewsland and Mongoose Town, for being relatively “quiet” since the start of the year, Christie listed sections of Balcombe Drive, Tower Avenue, Penwood Road, Moscow, Waltham Park Road and, to a lesser extent, St Joseph Road and Seaview Gardens, as “major hotspots”.

“We have too many gang wars in these areas, just too many. We tried the Community-Based Policing Initiative, but I think that the leadership within the force are not putting their hand in it,” said Christie.