WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Following Wednesday night’s shooting of four people as they were leaving a Valentine’s Day function at a bar, People’s National Party (PNP) councillor caretaker for the Savanna-la-Mar division Julian Chang is expressing concern about the spate of crime which she said has “haunted her division”.

According to the police, four people were shot outside the bar and were rushed to the hospital where they are undergoing treatment.

Observer Online understands that one of the victims, who reportedly got shot in her abdomen, is employed at the bar.

READ: Two women among four shot and injured at bar on Valentine’s Day

“I want to express my sympathies to the families of the persons who have been shot. It is really a sad time for Savanna-la-Mar. Within the last three weeks we’ve had a similar encounter,” Chang told the Observer Online on Thursday afternoon.

Chang said one of the victims, who is known to her, is unconscious and in a serious state.

“One of the persons who was shot is one of my former employees and I understand that she is in a critical condition and she is also a member of my division,” a distraught Chang said.

She said a similar incident three weeks ago, also left more than three people in her division wounded after they were shot up at a party.

READ: Five shot at party in Westmoreland

“We have really been haunted by the spate of crime in Savanna-la-Mar,” she stressed.

She has pledged to coordinate meetings with the relevant stakeholders and have the necessary discussions surrounding the crime plaguing the business hub.

One vendor who plies her trade in the township told Observer Online that she is scared and opts to close her small business earlier than usual.

“Mi nuh feel good about the shootings. Mi fraid, mi haffi guh in earlier, sometimes 7:00 or 8:00 pm,” one vendor said on condition of anonymity.

She said before the shootings she would stay overnight in the town as she tried to make a living. But, her hours have been shortened since.

“Every day it [shootings and murders] get worse,” the vendor bemoaned.

Meanwhile, one resident told the Observer Online that the 15 years maximum sentence that criminals are slapped with is not insufficient.

“Mi nuh like what a gwaan, too much killing that’s why mi nuh really come out,” the elderly man said.

He said back in his time he could have stayed out all night, but not now.

It is for that reason he suggested that the government apply harsher penalties to perpetrators of crime.

“The government must put up more resistance pan the killa dem, from you ketch a man wid gun yuh just put him weh. Dem nuffi come back a road, cause as dem come back a dem that again…,” he stressed.

-Kimberley Peddie