A dispute over plyboard is being reported as the spark which ignited the latest round of violence between traditional rivals from Goodwich Lane and Jacques Road in the lower Mountain View Avenue area in the eastern end of the Corporate Area.

The police have reported that the violence has already left one man dead and scores of residents traumatised following a heavy exchange of gunfire in the area yesterday morning.

Head of the Kingston Eastern Police Division Superintendent Victor Hamilton yesterday said the conflict involving gangsters from the two neighbouring communities has been ongoing for years despite repeated efforts to keep the peace in the area.

“Over the many years we have had several interventions, operational and otherwise, while speaking to persons and trying to get them to live good,” said Hamilton.

 “There was some conflict coming from last week where National Housing Trust-financed [complexes are being built]. Residents of both communities were employed [but] there were accusations through last week about some special plyboard being missing.

“We made some interventions [and] I personally went into both communities and spoke to persons, as late as last Tuesday.  The [pieces of] plyboard have been found, so we thought that things had simmered down and persons would return to work.  Only to find last night that violence had broken out and one resident of Goodwich Lane was shot and killed,” said Hamilton. He did not reveal the  identity of the dead man.

According to Hamilton, the police responded to the killing of the man by putting more personnel in place but that did not prevent the intense gunfire which occurred yesterday morning.

“As a result we have been able to mobilise more resources, including the military, so we gave out an advisory for persons to avoid that area because we did not want innocent civilians to get caught up in the crossfire.

“As it is just now, we think we have contained the violence… and we are getting more resources [but] we are still advising, at this time, that persons who do not have to use the area from Deanery Road to  Windward Road, if you don’t have to go there you should avoid the area,” warned Hamilton at mid-morning yesterday.

He said that the area was still very tense but there was an increased presence of members of the security forces on the ground.  

But when the Jamaica Observer team visited the area yesterday afternoon members of the security forces were noticeably absent.

On Jacques Road a handful of residents were seen outside their homes looking suspicious as the vehicle approached. There was an obvious reduction in the number of vehicles traversing the usually busy lower section of Mountain View Avenue, but there were no police barriers around Deanery Road or Windward Road to discourage persons from travelling through the violence-prone area.

In December 2017, a similar dispute over work on a construction project in the area sparked a deadly feud between gangsters from the two communities, one in St Andrew South East (Jacques Road) and the other in St Andrew Eastern (Goodwich Lane), spoilt Christmas for innocent residents who spent their holidays cowering in their homes.

A march through the community, which included political representatives, the People’s National Party’s Julian Robinson (St Andrew South East) and the Jamaica Labour Party’s Fayval Williams (St Andrew Eastern), ended with handshakes and commitments from both sides to keep the peace.

 Since then there have been reports of minor skirmishes but this is the first full-scale battle in the area since that peace march.