FIVE persons lost their lives by the gun between Friday night and yesterday, according to police reports.

Two of the dead persons — Keith Brown, otherwise called ‘Brotha Brown’, a caretaker; and Kevin Patterson, 36, otherwise called ‘Thugs’, of Ivy Road in Kingston — were murdered. The others were killed by the police.

Deputy Superintendent Victor Hamilton of the Spanish Town Police Station said Brown was gunned down as he was cleaning the churchyard at the New Life Worship Centre in De la Vega City in Spanish Town, St Catherine. The attack occurred about 6:00 am.

“There was supposed to be a wedding there today (yesterday) so apparently he was making preparations for that wedding,” said Hamilton, who late yesterday afternoon said investigators were still processing the scene.

“We know that the killers took away his wacker (weed whacker or hand-held mower), but as far as an attribution as to why they killed him, we have still not determined that,” continued Hamilton.

Brown, who was believed to be about 48 years old, was found lying on his back in a pool of blood. Hamilton said that despite the killing, the wedding was still held.

According to investigators in Kingston, Patterson was shot and killed at his home about 11:25 pm Friday. His bullet-riddled body was found by residents who went to investigate after hearing several explosions.

In the meantime, the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) is probing yesterday morning’s killing of 22-year-old Deocoy Spence, otherwise called ‘Dunn’, and another man in Green Pond, in an area called Capture Land in St James. The BSI is also probing Friday’s killing of another unidentified man in York Town, Clarendon.

Police said Spence and one of the unidentified men were shot by a police patrol.

An illegal Glock 19 pistol loaded with a magazine containing 10 live 9mm rounds, and an extended magazine with four live rounds were allegedly seized during the incident.

Police did not report how the Clarendon incident occurred but noted that the unidentified man was believed to be about 18 years old, of brown complexion, slim-built and about 170 centimetres tall.

Also in Clarendon, police yesterday said they had not arrested anyone in connection with the murder of two persons and the wounding of seven others in York Town Friday morning.

One of the alleged perpetrators was fatally shot by the police in the aftermath of the shootings which reportedly occurred in two separate incidents, and which were said to be the result of an ongoing gang feud.

“No, nobody has been taken into custody as far as I know,” a policeman at the May Pen Police Station told the Sunday Observer.