OCHO RIOS, St Ann — A grade 11 male student of Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St Ann’s Bay was among five people killed over a bloody weekend in this parish.

Sixteen-year-old Vencot Myers was killed by unknown assailant(s) at his home in Hampstead, Runaway Bay early Saturday morning, shortly after he returned home from a church function with his family.

Investigators suspect the boy’s attacker(s) gained entry to his room through a bathroom window and slashed his throat and stabbed him as he slept. Myers managed to crawl to another room on the house where he collapsed. He was rushed to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Yesterday, a cloud of gloom hung over his school as news of his tragic death spread during the morning Devotion. Students and teachers wept openly as they tried to come to terms with the shocking news.

“This is really sad. It’s a really a sad day for everyone at school to know something like that happened to one of our students at his home,” a disheartened principal Leslie Riley told the Observer.

Counsellors from the Ministry of Education Region Three office in Brown’s Town were called to the school yesterday to comfort grieving students and teachers.

“The teachers are crying, the students are crying. He was a very lively student. He meant much to the school community; he was a good boy, he was very well behaved, and an obedient and promising student,” Riley said, noting that Myers’ death had left the entire school community in shock.

Commanding officer for the parish, Senior Superintendent Carlton Wilson told the Observer that he was very concerned about the number of killings which occurred across the parish on the weekend.

“That is cause for concern; even though they (the killings) actually occurred in separate districts… what is alarming also is that most of these murders in St Ann are caused by machete or knife wounds,” he said.

Meanwhile, the other persons killed have been identified as 21-year old Kemar Coombs, otherwise called ‘Lenky’ and 36-year-old Donald ‘Skinny’ Gordon, both of Cole Road in Colegate near Ocho Rios; and Kelly McCook of Grierfield in Moneague.

Police said McCook was stabbed multiple times Saturday night as he walked along a dirt path in the Grierfield community.

Coombs and Gordon, meantime, were killed after two gunmen reportedly opened fire on them and other residents along Cole Road Sunday night. Three other person who were injured in the incident and have since been admitted to hospital.

One of two alleged gunmen involved in the shooting was chopped and stabbed to death by irate residents and a 9mm pistol taken from him and handed over to the police. His alleged crony, however, escaped in a waiting motor car.

SSP Wilson said the residents were shot at after they approached and made enquiries of the suspicious looking men who were seen lurking in the community.

Residents said the men were in the community asking about a female who operated a bar, but who left the area more than a year ago. They suspected that the men were planning a robbery.

SSP Wilson said the police are following some leads into the incident and would broaden their investigation to include recent events in the Ocho Rios area to determine if they were linked.

On Friday, a businesswoman was robbed of $2 million during a robbery at her business place in Content Gardens, Ocho Rios. A worker was also shot and wounded by the gunmen as they made their escape.

SSP Wilson said investigations into the other killings were progressing and has expressed confidence of an early breakthrough.