MANDEVILLE, Manchester – This south central highlands town is reeling from news of the shooting death late Saturday of businessman Vincent Young, during a robbery at his supermarket on Manchester Road, just outside the town centre.

The Constabulary Communi-cation Network (CCN) said Young, 61, and his wife were closing their business place “when four men, three armed with guns, approached and demanded money. He refused and the gunmen opened fire hitting him several times.

“Young pulled his licensed Smith and Wesson Colt revolver and fired at the men, but not before they took a bag with an undetermined sum of cash and cheques from him. His wife was robbed of her handbag with personal items. The robbers made their escape in a white Toyota motor car. Young was taken to the Mandeville Hospital where he was pronounced dead”.

Young’s death brings to 34, the number of murders in Manchester thus far this year. There was a record 52 murders in the parish for all of last year.

Yesterday, Deputy Super-intendent Beresford Brown, who heads criminal investigations in Manchester, told the Observer that greater alertness and proactiveness on the part of citizens in the area could possibly have prevented the crime.

“We are now hearing that the getaway car was seen parked in the area – for some time but no one thought to call the police and ask us to check it out. We have been saying to people over and over again, if you see anything strange in your area, strange men, a strange car – call the police. It’s our job to investigate,” he said.

Brown said that while the police got to the scene quickly, the criminals had already left and no one had the awareness to write down the car’s licence plate number.

“People have to become more aware,” said an obviously frustrated Brown. “People have to learn to be their brother’s keeper; I watch your back, you watch mine,” he said.

In paying condolences to Young’s family yesterday, president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce Winston Lawson said his death was yet another reminder of the need to step up the anti-crime fight. And he warned that the growing crime problem was a disincentive to business and investment in once-peaceful and quiet Manchester.

“We have to expedite police operations and also rev up social intervention programmes to help those who would otherwise be lured into criminality,” he said. Without a concerted effort to deal with crime on all fronts “we are going to have people (business people) closing their doors,” he said.

Lawson noted that Young was among those who had contributed to the Chamber-led project to install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the very centre of Mandeville. “We would love to be able to find the resources to expand the installation of cameras in all the business areas of Mandeville not just the town centre,” he said.