ST ANDREW, Jamaica— Prime Minister Andrew Holness visited the Olympic Gardens community on Wednesday following a spate of violent gun attacks in the area over the past three days.

At least six people have been reported dead in three separate double murders — one occurring on Sunday and two on Tuesday — leaving the community tense.

Holness, who represents the St Andrew West Central constituency, of which Olympic Gardens is a part, said that the latest gun attacks are believed to be gang related.

“It would appear young men from the community involved in gang activities ended up in conflict and it has resulted in the loss of six lives. We also believe that in addition to the gang conflict there may be retaliation where innocent lives are involved,” Holness said.

During his visit to the community, Holness stated that he wants to assure residents that the police are doing everything they can to stem the latest violent attacks by providing police presence in the area, and to continue investigations into the incidents.

“The police have assured me that they are investigating and that they will leave no stones unturned. So far residents are fearful; they have expressed their fears and so I am here to reassure them that we will have full coverage of the area both in terms of static and dynamic police presence but also in terms of intelligence gathering,” the Prime Minister said.

“We cannot allow such heinous crimes to be committed and the perpetrators face no consequences. This is my constituency, I love the people here; they are like my family and wherever crime happens — here or wherever in Jamaica — I literally take it very personally and so we are going to be ensuring that with these murders — this apparent gang conflict — that the necessary resources are brought to bear and the perpetrators are brought to justice,” Holness pledged.

He added that in response to the latest crime wave, in addition to police presence in the community, he is committed to fast tracking processes to have cameras installed as he believes this could have helped the police in tracking down and catching the perpetrators.

“There are some other measures which we will put in place as well, including cameras. We have a project in place, unfortunately it is stuck in procurement and it’s not yet come to fruition but I am going to try and fast track that because as you can see these areas are properly laid out with proper roads and infrastructure and so cameras would be very useful. The mode of the commission of the crime was by a drive-by so motor vehicles were used so therefore cameras would have been very useful in identifying the vehicles and, possibly the license plates, and possibly those who committed the crime,” Holness stated.

Holness added that he expects that members of the community will provide valuable and useful information to bring the perpetrators to justice as they are against what is happening.