DUANVALE, Trelawny – Reprisal for the murder of a woman and her young son six years ago has been suggested as a possible motive for Monday night’s quadruple homicide in Duanvale, Trelawny.

At the same time, the police are also looking at lottery scamming as they pursue all possible motives for the killings that rocked the usually tranquil rural community.

The police said 27-year-old Akeem Robinson, who they believe was the primary target on Monday night, had been fingered as the triggerman in the double murder of eight-year-old Javair Kerr-Lemon and his mother, 25-year-old Kerryann Williams. Mother and child were gunned down at their home in Kinloss in the parish in November 2017.

Head of the Area One Police Division Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers said though Robinson, otherwise called Eddie and Petro, had been taken in for questioning about the killing he had been later released.

“Investigators had difficulties proferring charges against him because of identification purposes,” he explained to journalists in Trelawny on Tuesday.

“In that incident as well, we had four other people who were shot and injured; aged eight, 14, 17, and 23,” added Chambers.

On Monday, four children who were downstairs at the time of the attack were not physically harmed. However, gunmen snuffed out the lives of 51-year-old Cordel “Bia” Graham and his intimate partner 43-year-old Nicole “Sheena” White, both residents of Duanvale. They also killed Robinson’s girlfriend, 21-year-old Amelia “Melia” Livingston. Both were from Kinloss.

Chambers stressed that the police are following strong leads in Monday night’s killings.

“Back in 2017 the lady that was killed was also visiting her spouse, and investigators unearthed that the spouse she was visiting at the time was in conflict with Akeem. There are some good leads that investigators are following,” he said.

He also noted that investigators are looking into reports that Robinson, who was an alleged player in lottery scamming, was in conflict with individuals from his community.

On Tuesday, sombre-faced individuals gathered at the two-storey building where the killings took place. Bloodstains covered sections of the ground.

Residents said the two couples were sitting on a veranda upstairs when their attackers accessed the building and fired a barrage of gunshots.

They also pointed to bloodstains on the wall of an upstairs window from where 51-year-old Graham, who owns the house, had jumped and landed on his face outside. It is reported that the gunmen rushed downstairs and pumped more shots into his body.

The other three were shot on the verandah.

Gloria Robinson, Graham’s grief-stricken mother, said she was in bed when she heard explosions coming from upstairs and wondered what her son and spouse were doing up there. She had planned to ask them in the morning.

She said her son, who was a construction worker, was not involved in criminal activity nor was he someone who sought out conflict, so she was shocked by the attack.

The grieving mother said she had always prayed she would die before her son as she was not strong enough to bury her child.

Seventy-seven-year-old Mertilyn “Rose” Dawkins, who has lived in Duanvale all her life, said this was the community’s first incident of four lives being snuffed out in one attack.

“We have things happen in our community, but not like this. We never expected this to happen in our community. It is the most shocking, the most disturbing, the most wicked, oh my God! It can’t compare. We cannot compare this. It take away every energy out of most of the people in the community right now,” she told the Observer.

She said the horrific attack left her sleepless and unable to eat or drink.

“Not even water me don’t drink until now. So you can imagine the type of feeling,” a distraught Dawkins added.

Member of Parliament for Trelawny Northern Tova Hamilton, who offered condolence to the grieving families, expressed concern about “the country and the direction I see us heading”.

“The recurring acts of violence make devastating incidents like what happened last night in Duanvale seem commonplace,” she said.

“I am concerned because it seems we have fallen into a vicious cycle of ‘breaking news’, and somehow we are stimulated by it. It’s as if with every news cycle we are aiming to outdo ourselves,” she lamented.