MONTEGO BAY, St James — A 16-year-old student was among eight persons fatally shot while at least three others, including a 13-year-old boy, were left nursing gunshot wounds as criminals went on the rampage across the western parishes of St James and Westmoreland over the weekend.

The dead student has been identified as Omarion Campbell of Peace View, St James.

According to police reports, about 5:00 pm on Saturday the two teenage boys went to a shop in their community when men armed with handguns and rifles entered and opened fire, hitting both of them.

They were taken to hospital where Campbell was pronounced dead and the 13-year-old admitted in a serious condition.

When the Jamaica Observer went to the community yesterday residents refused to speak, but a three-minute video making the rounds on social media showed a group of heavily armed men alighting from two motor cars before rushing in to a building identified as the shop where the two teenagers were shot.

The gun-toting men were later seen returning to the two vehicles, which sped from the scene.

In other incidents in St James on Saturday, 41-year-old farmer Bryan Coote, 35-year-old painter Jermaine Brown, and 33-year-old data entry clerk Daryl Richards of Salt Spring were killed in separate incidents.

The police report that at 8:30 pm on Saturday, Brown, who was visiting a female friend in the area known as Hopeton, was fatally shot by a man with whom he had an altercation. It is believed the man fathered a child with the woman who Brown was visiting.

In another incident, residents of Bump and Scott Lane in Salt Spring reported hearing loud explosions and summoned the police. When they arrived the police found Richards lying on the roadway in a pool of blood. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

In the third incident the police were called to Spring Gardens where Coote’s body was found with multiple gunshot wounds.

In Westmoreland, Arceno Samms, 28 and Devon Mosely, 34, both of Groveland Mountain, Negril; and 59-year-old labourer Winston Williams, of a Grange Hill address, and an unidentified man were the victims of gunmen on Saturday.

Reports from the Grange Hill Police are that about 7:30 pm, Williams and another man were standing outside a shop in their community when men drove up on a motorcycle and opened gunfire, hitting both of them.

The police were summoned and both men were taken to hospital where Williams was pronounced dead and the other man admitted.

Details of the other incidents were not available up to late last night.