The one-year-old boy who was shot and injured by gunmen in the Cherry Tree Lane massacre in Clarendon on Sunday, August 11 has survived the attack and has been released from hospital.

“The baby is okay, enuh. His mother said he was only grazed. He is at home and okay,” a resident from the community told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

The resident shared that only one person remains in hospital, while one of the injured individuals will return to remove a bullet from one of his arms later this week.

“The bullet lodged in one of his arms, right above the elbow,” the resident said.

She shared that the mood in the community has been tense ever since the massacre, which was followed by the declaration of a 96-hour curfew in the area and then a state of public emergency in the entire parish of Clarendon.

The deadly attack at a birthday celebration outside a bar in Cherry Tree Lane sent shock waves across the country and overseas as it resulted in eight deaths. Nine other people, including the baby, were shot and injured.

The deceased were identified as seven-year-old Aiden Bartley; 27-year-old Kavel Daley; 50-year-old Lawrence Francis; 20-year-old Diamond Bennett; 68-year-old Errol Stewart; 32-year-old Jermaine Boothe; Courtney Messam; and a woman known only as Margaret.

The following day, the security forces held four men on two motorcycles who were travelling together. The men on one of the motorbikes were held with an illegal firearm and were subsequently charged.

Last Wednesday, police shot dead a man they had identified as one of the prime suspects in the mass murder.

Police identified him as Steve Smith, otherwise called Thicka or Fly Brain. They said he was suspected of being involved in numerous contract-related killings and other serious and illicit activities in Clarendon and other parishes.

According to the police, members of the constabulary’s Fugitive Apprehension Team and the Clarendon Operational Support team went to a location in Osbourne Store, Clarendon, in search of Smith and other men who were suspected of being involved in Sunday’s multiple murder. There was a confrontation during which Smith was shot and injured. He was taken to the May Pen Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

His death came hours after Acting Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey told a news conference at Jamaica House that the Cherry Tree Lane massacre was the latest act of bloodshed in a dispute over spoils between feuding gangsters overseas who inked “homicidal contracts” for revenge that spread to several communities in Clarendon over the past three years.

On Tuesday, a resident of the community told the Observer that they had tried to organise a candlelight vigil on Monday, but it was not possible.

“You hardly see people on the road. If you see them on the road in the morning, by midday the road is empty,” the resident said.

“The soldiers’ presence is strong in the community. They maintain the curfew hours. The curfew is between 6:00 am and 6:30 pm each day. The security forces drive through from day to day. Each day, different soldiers come through. They check a lot of taxi drivers and all strange people have to produce identification, and they ask them what they are in the community for,” the resident said.