AT least one Waterford, St Catherine, resident thought explosions that rang out in the Clandon Road area of the community on Sunday night were firecrackers. However, the reality soon became clear when piercing screams told another tale.

Three members of one family — a mother, daughter and grandson — were gunned down in their home.

“At first we thought it was clappers, ’cause you know is Christmastime and thing. A when we hear the screaming we realise that wasn’t the case,” the resident told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“It (the killings) surprise everybody,” the resident said.

The deceased have been identified as 74-year-old Pamela Russell, her 48-year-old daughter Shemelia Russell-Craig, and her 21-year-old grandson Romario Craig, a past student of Ascot High School.

According to a report from the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Corporate Communications Unit, the three were gunned down in their home about 9:20 pm.

Russell and Craig were pronounced dead at hospital, while Russell-Craig died while undergoing treatment.

“A nice people dem — quiet [people]. Very nice people,” another resident told the Observer when the team visited the area yesterday.

“You see when All Together Sing done and the thing dem (closing credits) a come down, a that time me hear the shot dem and mi never get fi see when the next programme start,” another resident interjected.

“Is a whole family of them over there. Three generations dead.

“It look like the grille never lock and them walk in, because it did early,” the resident continued. “The grandmother, me not even did know she did so old due to how she keep up well. Her age surprise me. She strong, strong, strong. Di woman did have about another 20 years of life in a her.”

Shortly after the killings, Ricardo Foster, vice-president of Young Jamaica — the youth arm of the governing Jamaica Labour Party — called on the joint team of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and Jamaica Defence Force to heighten their operations in the Portmore community of Waterford, to get the guns.

“It is unfortunate that gunmen felt bold enough to carry out such an operation, even though there is a state of emergency in place,” Foster said in a press release.

“It is clear that this was an inside job, as it would’ve been hard for outsiders to enter a community such as Waterford, carry out such an operation, and leave undetected,” he said.

He then expressed condolences to the Jamaica Labour Party caretaker for the Waterford Division in Portmore, Krisho Holmes — who is said to be related to the deceased — and his family, while calling on all Jamaicans to keep the family in their prayers.