At least one senior investigator theorises that Tuesday night’s deadly shooting of a male and female on Howard Cooke Highway here was a contract killing.

Reports are that Tuesday, about 10:00 pm, a group of men travelling in a white Toyota motor car fired on a Honda motor car with a man and a woman aboard. It is also understood that the two occupants of a Nissan pickup truck, which was travelling behind the Honda, were also shot during the attack.

The four were taken to Cornwall Regional Hospital where the Honda couple were pronounced dead, while the other two were admitted and said to be in stable condition.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer West on condition that his name be withheld, the sleuth reasoned that contract killings are on the rise in western Jamaica.

“That is the reason why some of the murders don’t seem to make any sense,” the senior investigator said.

Last week, at a press conference at the office of the police commissioner, head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau Assistant Commissioner of Police Ealan Powell expressed that there is an increase in the number of contract killings across Jamaica. He indicated that several of the hits stem from minor disputes over land, insurance, and inheritance.

A highly placed Observer West police source suggests that several hits carried out in Area One — which comprises Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland — arises from disputes among players involved in the lottery scam, among other motives.

“There is a lot of money from the lottery scam, and there is no lack of will to do evil, so evil ends up being done,” the cop argued.

The Observer source noted that, on some occasions, the person who orders the hit doesn’t know the hitman, as a third party is used to make the contact. In other cases, the shooter does have audience with the contractor and they negotiate a price.

Problems arise when, according to our source, “The hitman is held by the police before he is paid and don’t end up getting the money that is out there.”

“There is problem when the hitman want him money to cover legal cost, but the money not forthcoming,” the cop said further.

Meanwhile, retired police Superintendent John Morris, who served in Area One up to 2007, noted that during his tenure there was no clear evidence that contract killing was a frequent occurrence.

“But these things are likely to happen because people now have little regard for life,” the venerable investigator who served the force for 36 years argued.

Six people were reportedly killed in St James in under 12 hours between Tuesday evening and yesterday morning in four different incidents. The recent killings springboard the murder tally in the parish to 118 since the start of the year; 18 more than the number recorded for the corresponding period last year.