WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— Two vehicles were shot up by bike-riding thugs along the Crowder main road in Westmoreland Tuesday morning as gang conflict continued to escalate in the Grange Hill area of the parish.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Dean Watson confirmed the incident happened at around 10 am and that no one was injured.

“The area has been tense over the last couple of days, the police are trying their best to restore law and order by deploying additional resources to the area. There are long-standing feuds, gang-related activities, people fighting for donship and territory. Presently, we are doing an assessment of the ongoing violence and we are in the affected areas working towards a return to normalcy,” Watson told Observer Online.

The ongoing gang violence claimed five lives in the past week and residents, especially in the Belle Isle section of the community – the reported stronghold of the King Valley Gang – are running scared. Residents who live in Crowder, the alleged home turf of the Ants Posse, are similarly concerned.

The two gangs reportedly have been engaged in a heated conflict.

Three men were murdered on Saturday as marauding gangsters invaded a section of the Grange Hill community.

On Sunday, Shakiel Forrest was killed in Little London and on Monday, 25-year-old Norman ‘Shortman’ Backriddan, was riding his motorcycle in the vicinity of Belle Isle Road when he was ambushed and shot multiple times.

READ: Five people shot and killed in less than 72 hours in Grange Hill, Westmoreland

— Claude Mills