MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Even as the Manchester police probe the murder of two brothers from Cassava Piece in St Andrew, police from the St Andrew North Division say they are on alert to prevent reprisal attacks in the area.

Head of the St Andrew North police, Superintendent Sherika Service said measures are in place to quell the likelihood of violence in Cassava Piece and surrounding areas emanating from last Friday’s killing of Mark and Kirk McLean in a drive-by shooting in Williamsfield, Manchester.

“We have been looking at whether or not there will be implications for the Cassava Piece area more specifically, but we have put in place some operational initiatives to mitigate against any likely act of reprisal in the space that would occur,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

A senior police source said Mark McLean, who is said to have had a chequered past, was the target of a failed contract hit two years ago in Barbican, St Andrew.

Police said shortly after midday last Friday the McLean brothers and a woman were travelling in a Mercedes Benz motor car when they were trailed from Cassava Piece to Williamsfield where they stopped at a jerk centre and bar.

When the brothers exited the vehicle police say gunmen travelling in a motor car opened fire, hitting them. The woman escaped unharmed.

A worker on the US$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000, who had reportedly gone to the jerk centre to purchase his lunch, was shot and injured in the melee.

Head of the Manchester police Superintendent Shane McCalla told the Observer “investigations are progressing” into the double murder and that the police continue to target migrant criminals.

“We continue to dominate the public thoroughfare, deploying our resources in a strategic manner to ensure that we give that level of coverage to the major thoroughfares,” he said.

He added that the injured man is recovering in hospital.

“He is stable. His injuries are not life-threatening,” McCalla said.

— Kasey Williams