A series of loud explosions jolted residents of Bedward Gardens in St Andrew from their sleep some time after 4:00 am on Saturday.

A woman, who spoke with the Jamaica Observer Saturday afternoon, related how she immediately jumped from her bed and took cover. Amidst her panic, she heard screams outside and remembered that her two nephews, who had just returned from a party, had gone outside to the regular spot where they would drink and play ludo and dominoes.

When the explosions subsided and she inquired, she learnt that both her nephews — 24-year-old Rasheed “Buppy” Edwards and 18-year-old Keno “Brains” Wray — and their friend, who was identified as “Jackson”, were shot. Police later confirmed that Jackson is the son of popular entertainer Sanchez, whose given name is Kevin Anthony Jackson.

The young man’s death came on the same day that Sanchez was burying his mother, Bridgette Gardner Ivey, who passed away earlier this month in Canada at age 74.

“They felt peckish… they just came back home. Sanchez son buy a juice and him not even get fi pull it. It is still there on the table,” the woman said.

“May 5 coming, Rasheed would’ve been 25. He is just a jovial and nice person. He has a one-year-old daughter and from morning she calling for him,” she added.

“Keno now, he just turned 18 in January. We never expected this. The place is tense and the family is heartbroken,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“It was a lot of shots. I had to take cover… it is right outside my house. I had to get flat under my bed. Everybody is just scared now and the soldiers are not patrolling… they are just at the ZOSO [zone of special operations] checkpoint out on the main. I am scared right now,” she continued.

The owner of the shop where the men had stopped to make purchases discovered several bullet holes on his property. He showed this reporter bullet holes on his cupboard and refrigerator in the shop.

Police say that about 4:50 am they received reports of gunfire in the community. When they arrived, Edwards, Wray, and Jackson were discovered lying on a dirt track near a football field with what appeared to be gunshot wounds. They were taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead. Up until Saturday evening, no one was arrested in relation to the killings.

When the Sunday Observer team first visited the location about 7:00 am on Saturday, the scene was cordoned off as soldiers and police officers patrolled the area.

When the newspaper returned to the community after 6:00 pm, the scene had been cleared. Residents told the Sunday Observer that they wished the security forces were still present. Family and friends of the deceased were gathered outside under a tree near the crime scene.

According to the Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), “The Major Investigation Division [MID] are probing the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of three men in Bedward Garden on Saturday, April 30.”

Meanwhile, Edwards and Wray’s aunt told the Sunday Observer that she had lost her 31-year-old son to gun violence last year. He was killed in downtown Kingston by men who are suspected to be gang members from Bedward.

She admitted, however, that she is more terrified now.

“The same war take my son last year March and now this. But me never fraid like this. This time them come right at my gate and killed three persons! Three persons. This show that they don’t respect anybody. They don’t care… them just a do dem thing. It nuh safe. Me scared,” she said.

Since the start of the year, there have been 24 murders and 15 shootings in the St Andrew Central Police Division.