TODSS bemoans killing of 5th taxi operator since the start of the year
ST ANN, Jamaica – The killing of a St Ann taxi operator between Monday and Tuesday morning brings the number of transport operators who have been murdered since the start of the year to five.
That’s according to president of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services, (TODSS), Egeton Newman.
He made the statement in relation to the discovery of a body in Brown’s Town, St Ann on Tuesday morning.
The deceased has been identified as 32-year-old Marlon Mannings of Windsor, St Ann’s Bay in the parish. Police said he was found by residents with a gunshot wound to the head.
According to Newman, Mannings’ death is another attack on one of the island’s most important service providers.
“It’s not surprising that we continue to have the ongoing spate of murder of our service providers, our first respondent in providing transportation for our people, this is the fifth taxi operator to be killed by hoodlums [since] the start of the year,” he said.
Newman offered his condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and called on the country to do more to protect public transport operators.
Reports are that at about 6:30 am, residents stumbled upon Mannings’ body and alerted the police. On arrival of the lawmen, the body was seen along the roadway with a gunshot wound to the head.
The body was removed to the morgue.