THREE HILLS, St Mary — Shock, anger, grief, and disbelief gripped the usually quiet community of Three Hills in Western St Mary yesterday after a policeman shot dead four members of his wife’s family before turning the gun on himself.

Corporal Wayne Llewellyn reportedly killed his stepdaughter, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and his brother-in-law before he ended his own life outside his sister-in-law’s house metres away.

His victims have been identified as 16-year-old Jorihan Flynn, Rachel Brown and her 72-year-old husband Vodley and their son John Townsend, 55. Llewellyn’s 40-year-old wife of 13 years was admitted to hospital with a bullet wound to the neck.

Crime chief for the parish, Deputy Superintendent Gladstone Ellis said yesterday that preliminary investigations revealed that the quadruple murder and suicide seem to have resulted from a domestic dispute.

Relatives told the Observer that Llewellyn and his wife were having marital problems and that the two separated about two months ago, prompting his wife to return to her parents’ home in St Mary with her daughter last month.

“He was abusing her and she just couldn’t take it anymore, that’s why she move up from Manchester. A many years Wayne abuse Joan, and see it now, him kill off her entire family,” a relative who identified herself as Lorna told the Observer.

Recent postings on Llewellyn’s Facebook page revealed that things were not going well in his marriage. He had recently changed the status on his page from ‘married’ to ‘complicated’ before changing it again on April 1 to ‘no longer complicated’.

Members of the Area II police where Llewellyn worked for several years before he was recently transferred to Area III in Mandeville expressed shock and disappointment over the horrific incident.

Reverend Roy Wykham, the force Chaplin assigned to the Area II police, yesterday said the incident was a very unfortunate one which has caused numbness, disappointment and shock.

“It is a sad day, it is very disappointing and the fact is that what we knew of him, while he was in Area II, he wasn’t a man who talked a lot. I don’t know what had developed… we are all disappointed as to what has happened,” said Rev Wykham.

He said police involved in the investigation as well as those who worked with the cop would undergo critical incident stress briefing. He said the police counsellors would also provide counselling for relatives and neighbours.

Yesterday, a large group of residents gathered outside the Browns’ house on Goshen Street in the community where the four murdered victims were discovered shortly after 6:00 am.

“I really can’t believe it. Mr and Mrs Brown were good persons; they did not deserve this death, we really shake up. It is shocking to everybody. Everybody just can’t believe that the policeman kill off the people them,” one resident lamented.

Several relatives who gathered outside the house fought hard to hold back the tears and at least two fainted and had to be rushed to hospital. The residents said they were angered by the incident which has left the community in a bad light.

“Mrs Brown was my mother, she was my aunt, she was like my best friend; she was everybody in Three Hills friend, she was like a mom to them. Uncle Val, he is everybody’s friend, they didn’t deserve this,” Brown’s niece, Marjorie Richard-Brown, said.

One of Mrs Brown’s church sisters, Deloney Hilton, recalled a conversation she had with her on Tuesday in which she expressed fear for her life. According to Hilton, the elderly woman had called her and told her that her son-in-law (Llewellyn) had threatened to kill the family.

Llewellyn had reportedly blamed his wife’s family for the problems he was having with her.

The Observer was told that Llewellyn worked the night shift Wednesday at the Mandeville Police Station where he was assigned to the Accident Reconstruction Unit, but travelled to St Ann early Thursday morning where he committed the crime.

Yesterday, several of his friends on the popular social networking site Facebook seemed perplexed by this action.

One person wrote: “Condolences to my brother’s wife Shauneal and the rest of the family. We will be praying and supporting you all the way. Wayne, Wayne, Wayne!!! Only God alone knew what happened when you snapped and ended so many lives, including yours. May God be with the family at this time!!!”

Another person wrote: “Don’t know what to say. While not justifying such actions, anyone who knew Wayne as I did can say he was a good God-fearing person. I don’t know what to say.”

Similar sentiments were expressed yesterday by several of his colleagues who visited the scene. They described the corporal as a hard-working cop and questioned what could have pushed him to that action.

A neighbour who first went to investigate after he heard the explosions said Llewellyn told him as he passed him on the road next to the house that his life had been nothing but problem.

“I asked him what happened and he said he had been married to this woman for 13 years and it has been nothing but problem,” the man who asked not to be named told the Observer.

The neighbour said he heard the wife calling for help and when he went inside the house he discovered three of the bodies. The fourth body was found outside.

After the horrifying crime, residents said Llewellyn went to his sister-in-law’s house several metres away and tried to persuade her to let him in. When she refused, he reportedly turned the gun on himself.