MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Rose Charlton, the widow of former Mandeville Mayor Cecil Charlton, and her son David were yesterday hospitalised following a brazen gun attack along the George’s Valley main road near their family home in the adjoining May Day community.

A relative who spoke with the Jamaica Observer said shortly after midday the Charltons were driving through the community when armed men emerged from bushes and opened fire on the vehicle.

“They are both stable and are expected to make a full recovery. David got shot in both shoulders and Miss B [Rose Charlton] got shot in her right hand. Persons [emerged] from bushes and tried to stop them while they were travelling from their home…David did not stop and they [gunmen] started to open fire [on the vehicle],” said Cecil Charlton’s granddaughter, Charmaine Stephenson.

“He [David] was conscious and smart enough to drive directly to Hargreaves Memorial Hospital where they are now being treated. X-rays have been done,” she added.

Stephenson expressed shock that her grandmother and uncle were attacked.

“It is nerve-racking for lack of a better word…It is scary. I’m just happy they are alive,” she said.

Cecil Charlton, who died in 2013, was mayor of Mandeville for about 20 years between the 1960s and the 1980s.

— Kasey Williams