SPICY HILL, Trelawny — A four-year-old girl, who was believed to have been abducted by unknown attackers who shot and killed her mother and injured another woman here Saturday afternoon, was found abandoned on a roadway hours after the attack.

“After the shooting she ran and was later found by a farmer on the same road,” a senior investigator told the Jamaica Observer.

The police theorise that the deadly gun attack on the women was in reprisal for the shooting death of a man in the community during the wee hours of Saturday morning.

The deceased have been identified as 38- year-old labourer Iron Jarrett of Spicy Hill and 21-year-old Teeka Ennis of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and Refuge, Trelawny.

Up to late Saturday evening the infant was in the possession of the Trelawny police, who indicated that she was not physically hurt.

Meanwhile, the second woman who was shot during the attack remained in hospital in critical condition.

Reports are that about 12:45 Ennis, her daughter, and another woman were walking along a lonely road leading from Spicy Hill to Refuge when they were pounced upon and shot by unknown attackers.

The women were rushed to hospital where Ennis was pronounced dead and the other woman admitted in critical condition.

But family members and residents became concerned after the infant could not be found.

However, while the police were on the crime scene, news broke that she had been located further along the roadway.

“To God be the glory,” expressed a family member who was among the gathering that massed outside the taped crime scene.

The shooting came about 11 hours after Jarrett was shot amd killed at his home, not long after he returned from a party in his community.

Reports are that about 1:30 am, residents heard gunshots coming from the direction of Jarrett’s house. The police say his bullet-riddled body was discovered about 7:00 am by a family member.

“I don’t know why someone would want to hurt him because he cannot even walk without crutches,” one of Jarrett’s family members contemplated.

The police say the attack was linked to an ongoing fued in the area between rival factions. It is believed that Jarrett was killed because he was labelled as an “informer”.

A police source told the Sunday Observer that Ennis was believed to be connected to a member of one of the rivalling factions.

“We recently had a major operation in the Spicy Hill space in search of the individuals involved in an ongoing feud,” Superintendent Carlos Russell, head of the Trelawny Police Division shared.

The Trelawny Police Divison has now recorded eight murders since the start of the year, four more than the two reported over the same period last year.

The police reported that 17 murders were reported in the parish for 2021 – six less than the 23 recorded the previous year.

Trelawny, which tallied the second-lowest number of murders across the 19 police divisions last year, was edged out by the parish of Portland, which ended the year on 15.