The community of Bedward Gardens in St Andrew is still reeling from a triple murder that jolted residents in the wee hours of Saturday, April 30.

Two weeks after the incident, residents told the Jamaica Observer that the community remains tense, and they say, sadly, they are expecting the worst.

A businessman, whose shop the victims had gone to buy drinks after returning from a party the morning, told the Sunday Observer that most residents have stopped visiting the shop, especially after dark. Two of the victims were attacked outside his shop — their bloodstains he has had to cover with dirt.

“The community tense same way. The community 100 per cent tense. And nothing nah gwan fi the business right now. People stop come here, especially at nights. One and few people come during the days same way, and I give thanks for those customers who come, but business drop at least 55 per cent right now,” the man said, noting that he narrowly escaped death, as he had closed the shop mere minutes before he heard explosions.

The man, who said he nervously took cover inside under the cupboard, said it is evident that residents are anticipating a domino effect.

“People just don’t know if a second incident will happen. We are in the ghetto so we just have to try an don’t let these things stress wi. We just affi move on with wi life. Nobody knows when a fi dem time,” he added.

When the Sunday Observer visited the community on April 30, the shop had multiple bullet holes. Inside, bullet holes were also evident on a cupboard and refrigerator.

Reports are that about 4:00 am, thugs pounced upon 24-year-old Rasheed “Buppy” Edwards, 18-year-old Keno “Brains” Wray, and their friend who was identified as “Jackson” at a shop in the community.

Police were alerted and when they arrived, Edwards, Wray, and Jackson were discovered lying outside the shop — a dirt track vicinity near a football field — with gunshot wounds. They were assisted to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

One woman told the Sunday Observer that she has been on edge ever since.

“Nobody don’t know what can happen next or even when, because the three of them seem like they were targets. Them just come back from a party and it is just too strange that they were killed like that,” she said.

“It still feel like a yesterday everything happened, or even like it was this morning. It still feel fresh and wi still feel it because the yute dem lose dem life just like that. Is not like dem did deh out pon the main road or deep ina some bush away from everybody… this happen ina the heart of the place.”

Another resident said the community is devastated, saying they were just getting used to night-time entertainment following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

“You nah catch anybody out a door a night-time like that. Nobody nuh suh crazy. Remember a nuh one man dead enuh… them come and shoot up the place and kill three people. So, if them come again and yuh deh beside the wrong person, it likely say you a go dead too. A so people a think now,” the woman lamented.

She marvels at the fact that criminals made it past soldiers at a zone of special operations (ZOSO) point at River Bottom Road in the vicinity of Bedward Gardens.

“That should show anybody that anything is possible because criminals don’t care. If dem wah kill Tom, Dick, or Harry, noting nah go stop them, and whoever get caught up in the crossfire, so be it. That is where Jamaica reach now,” she said.

Since the start of the year, there have been 28 murders and 17 shootings in the St Andrew Central Police Division.