SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Burning questions following Wednesday night’s murder/ suicide in Short Hill, Pedro Plains, southern St Elizabeth, included “What about the children? How do they deal with this?”

When 59-year-old Ernest Douglas, a retired police inspector, shot dead 41-year-old beautician and nail technician, Tamara McIntosh then turned the Glock pistol on himself, they left behind a 17-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter.

Reports say that the licence for the weapon was only renewed earlier Wednesday, a day after Douglas — who, prior to retiring from the police force, had worked in the protective services — returned to Jamaica from the United States.

Curnel Chambers, a district constable who lives in a rented apartment adjoining the two-storey house previously occupied by McIntosh and her children, spoke hesitantly and with considerable distress when the Jamaica Observer visited on Thursday.

His face a tortured mask, Chambers told how the dead couple’s 17-year-old son was scheduled to graduate today (Sunday) from a leading St Elizabeth high school. The 12-year-old had only learned on Tuesday, after the release of Grade Six Acheivement Test results, that she would be assigned to one of Manchester’s more prestigious schools.

Chambers wasn’t at home when the tragedy unfolded, sometime after 8:00 pm Wednesday. By then, he had gone off to work at the Pedro Plains Police Station.

Yet, before he left home, the district constable had taken note of a grey Honda Accord motor car with heavily tinted windows which kept “blowing horn” at the gate and which drove past the house more than once. He went out to investigate but when the driver did not wind down his windows to speak to him, Chambers deduced that those being sought were his fellow tenants, next door.

“I just turn back inside … the children (next door) had not come home as yet (from school) and she (McIntosh) was still at work,” Chambers stated.

When Chambers left home for work around 5:30 pm, he noticed the grey car “coming back down the road”. By then, the children had come home from school but McIntosh was still at work.

He passed his house while on patrol about 7:00 pm and noticed that the car was now parked at the gate, blocking the driveway. A man — whom Chambers now recognised as Douglas, the children’s father — and their mother were sitting at the edge of the driveway. Douglas sat on a small pile of building blocks while McIntosh sat beside him on a stool.

Chambers recalled that the “two kids were there with them” and that the group seemed happy together.

But not long after, news came of something gone terribly awry. First, the supervising officer at the police station, an inspector, got a telephone call to say “It look like Chambers just shoot “him wife” at home. That couldn’t be, the police inspector told the caller, because DC Chambers was right beside him.

“’Well,” the caller replied, “is pure gun shot wi a hear over di yard”. Other calls followed, confirming disaster.

Chambers clasped his head with his hands as he recalled the trauma. He and fellow lawmen rushed to his home to find the bodies of his neighbour and her children’s father lying beside each other, almost exactly where he had seen them less than an hour earlier, in a seemingly friendly mood. The pistol was beside them. The physical evidence suggested McIntosh had been shot several times, mostly to the head. Douglas also had a head wound — shot through the mouth.

“Gentlemen, I don’t know how I gwi manage this,” Chambers told the Sunday Observer team. He recalled that he had a cordial, good, neighbourly relationship with McIntosh, whom he referred to as ‘Tammy’. “Mi and she never have anything yet, not even to say peas and pod, nothing. We talk like ‘morning’, and ‘evening’. (Utility) bill come, we share bill; she gone her way, mi gone my way. So when I come and see … I say to meself ‘Jesus! Then wha im coulda come and kill Tammy for’ …” said the grieving Chambers.

On Thursday, when the Sunday Observer visited, the house where McIntosh and her children lived was unoccupied. The children — who may not have witnessed the tragedy because they had reportedly been sent inside by their parents — had been taken away by caring relatives. Small dark puddles, the remains of blood washed off the driveway, were still evident on the road.

Chambers confirmed that he knew the ill-fated couple had “been having a little dispute”. They had actually separated two years ago. Douglas supported his children and would visit the home, without entering the house.

“He would always come and park at the gate and the children go to him. I never know him as coming in,” said Chambers.

Last year, Douglas emigrated to the United States. In Easter, he visited for just over a week. Chambers recalled that having given up his own rented house in a neighbouring community, Douglas deviated from the previous norm by staying at Short Hill with McIntosh and their children during the brief Easter visit.

The word circulating was that Douglas wanted to get married to McIntosh. But she wanted a permanent end to their relationship, which she had alleged was sometimes rocky and abusive. Chambers theorised that Douglas may have been pushed over the edge because “people were telling him things”.

For head of the St Elizabeth police, Superintendent Lanford Salmon, the tragedy was yet more evidence of the difficulties posed by domestic disputes, especially man/woman relationships gone sour.

The tragedy in Short Hill came just a day after 21 -year-old Felicia Wynter of Culloden, Westmoreland, was killed allegedly by her baby’s father, at Galleon Beach, just west of the St Elizabeth capital of Black River.

She was allegedly lured from her home by her boyfriend, a 27-year-old farmer of Crawford, south west St Elizabeth.

Police say Wynter’s body, with a wound to the head apparently caused by a “blunt” implement, was found under a pile of wood, leading to suspicions that there were plans to burn it. The suspect is in custody, likely to be formally charged this week.

“These are the type of murders that the police can do little or nothing about,” Salmon said.

“We can only call on citizens to alert us if they see situations unfolding that can lead to domestic violence and tragedy. That way, the police can proactively move to save lives,” he added.

The police chief took the same message to a commissioning ceremony for Justices of the Peace (lay magistrates) in Santa Cruz on Thursday. Salmon told the Justices that as leaders in their communities, they had a responsibility to seek to make peace and resolve differences whenever they could, and to report potentially dangerous situations to the police.