A male resident of Whitfield Avenue in St Andrew, who was allegedly awaiting a taxi to get to work, escaped death on Tuesday afternoon when gunmen travelling in a motor vehicle opened fire at him, firing close to 20 rounds.

It was not clear how many of the shots caught the man who was injured during the incident at the intersection of Whitfield and Maxfield avenues, but up to press time his condition was not believed to be life-threatening.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Corporate Communications Unit confirmed that the incident occured but was unable to provide the Jamaica Observer with details.

The incident occurred in the midst of operations being carried out by police and military personnel close by in sections of Maxfield Avenue, including Rousseau Road and Sunlight Street.

One man told the Jamaica Observer that he was picking ackees from a tree when the shots rang out, prompting him to jump from a branch to the ground.

“A chuck mi chuck out when di shot dem start fire. When mi come down, mi tell one man seh him can get wah mi pick because mi nuh bother want no ackee. It was a whole heap a shot. At first people thought soldiers were on foot and saw gunmen and engaged them in shoot-out.

“People past the youth out on the front. He is a man weh go to work more time, suh him tek taxi. His aunt was upset with him because she just gave him $1,000 to pay his taxi fare and didn’t expect that he would be out on the road so long. When we heard the shots, nobody was looking to see him anywhere near here,” the resident claimed.

One elderly man, who was hanging out on the street, told the Observer he had to leave his slippers behind when the barrage of gunshots began. He said the moment was so intense he had to check to ensure he himself had not been shot.

“A yah suh me siddung pon di side walk and di shot dem just a whistle past mi. All one policeman stay way down the road and heard the bullets whistling past his location. I had to run out of my two slippers because all I could hear was ping, ling, ping. When me get up off the ground, I felt I got shot. Thankfully, I wasn’t shot,” he said.

Another resident described the apparent target as a “top man” whose presence on the “front page” presented an opportunity for people who don’t like him to try and gun him down.

“A top man dem want, and once it is a top man, dem a guh fire nuff shot,” the resident said.

In a seperate incident, less than 100 metres north of where the shooting occured, residents of Sunlight Street complained to the Observer that their houses were raided before dawn by policemen who ransacked their belongings during a operation. The residents said the police spent roughly eight hours searching in the community, going from house to house.

One man, who was taken away by lawmen and processed before being released, claimed that the lawmen engaged in bullyism.

“They had no purpose other than the fact that they don’t like Sunlight Street. They treated us like rubbish. Dem beat we up for nothing at all and carry us for processing, then brought us back. Those police are some young youth walking around with rifles. Dem seh we nuh fi curse badword and dem a cuss badwords at us.

“Di man dem mek it look like a gunman alone live yah. I was sleeping and dem drape mi up and haul mi out a mi bed. All mi a try tell dem fi calm down and go easy, dem still fling dung everything inna mi house,” said the man.