GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland — A tough-talking National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang on Friday vowed that the police will hunt down the murderer of a schoolboy who was gunned down metres from his school in Grange Hill last Thursday.

“We are going to pursue the perpetrator relentlessly — whether he is young or old. We’re going to find him and we’re going to remove him from the community,” Dr Chang told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to Grange Hill High School.

“The police will pressure the criminals relentlessly. We have accurate intelligence… that [the killer] comes from an area called King’s Valley, and we know we have a crew up there called King’s Valley gang,” he added.

Dr Chang was part of a team that visited the school in the wake of the slaying of 16-year-old Carson Barrett. The teenager was shot and killed as he walked home from sports day. A 15-year-old girl who was walking with him was also shot and injured during the attack. Minister Chang said he and the team thought it best to visit and reassure those at the school as well as the wider Grange Hill community.

Among those who spoke to the students on Friday was Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake who vowed to get rid of criminal elements in order to protect pupils inside and outside the school’s corridors. He acknowledged that Grange Hill High is located in a volatile community.

“The school exists in an environment, and it’s not detached from the environment. Whilst we can take care of you in the confines of the school we have to ensure that the threat that is out there is dealt with,” the top cop stressed.

“Let me assure you that you will not be taking this journey on your own,” he reassured the students.

Commissioner Blake said the police know who the perpetrators are.

“We will be doing everything in our power to remove them,” he assured.

He also encouraged the students to refrain from a life of crime and to embrace education.

“You are the future; do not be dragged into crime. Stay away from crime, criminality and gangsterism. It is not cool,” Blake urged.

School board Chairman Samuel Williams is longing for the day when the institution is no longer under threat.

“I hope one day Grange Hill High School will emerge as a victor over all the negative things that are happening. The Grange Hill community and its environs, I’m pleading to you all to think of the future and what we have as a legacy here at this institution. Let’s not break the partnership with God,” he urged.

“I am hoping that the youth will put down the guns, think differently and think positively, and trust God,” Williams pleaded.