CHRISTIANA, Manchester — Just under five hours after the brutal murder of a school bus driver at Holmwood Technical High School in Manchester, police reported that they held two suspects approximately 28 miles away in neighbouring Clarendon.

Head of the Manchester police Deputy Superintendent Carey Duncan told the Jamaica Observer that immediately after the murder of Rohan Gentles on the school compound about 8:15 am, the constabulary’s operations and investigations machinery was put in place and, through coordinated efforts, a motor vehicle with the two male suspects was intercepted.

“This dastardly act was perpetrated by a gunman who laywaited him at [the school]. After the incident he escaped in a motor vehicle that was waiting some distance away,” Duncan said.

“As it stands now, those persons are being interviewed. We are hoping to move the investigation further. We are here standing in solidarity with the principal and the Holmwood Technical family, just to give them the necessary support,” Duncan told journalists during a visit to the school in the company of National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang and Manchester North Eastern Member of Parliament Audley Shaw.

Dr Chang commended the police for their swift action in apprehending the suspects.

“I have to consider it as swift, effective work by the police. I have to commend the officers involved and also the brave citizens who provided some information. They were able to get enough information to track down the vehicle,” Dr Chang said.

Forty-seven-year-old Gentles, who is Holmwood’s official bus driver, was gunned down shortly after transporting students to the school from Mandeville and as he awaited members of the school’s football team to board the bus for Spalding where they were scheduled to play two matches.

Holmwood Principal Hidran McKulsky, who dismissed school early, said students and staff were left traumatised by the murder of a well-loved employee.

“It is a sad day for us at Holmwood Technical High School; it is a sad day for Christiana and Jamaica. The killing of the school’s driver is deeply regretted. He was someone who was pretty much comfortable and interacted well with everyone. He transports the children on PATH (Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education) from Mandeville to school; it is just unfortunate. The students [and] teachers were traumatised,” said McKulsky.

He said the Ministry of Education is expected to support the school’s devotional exercise on Monday and offer grief counselling to students and staff.

Additionally, he said that churches and officials from other schools in proximity are expected to offer counselling sessions to help Holmwood students and teachers “cope with this difficult period”.

McKulsky called on the Ministry of Education to review the school’s layout and create a new entrance to remove a community road running through the middle of the campus.

“It is very unfortunate that this incident took place in the middle of the school compound. One of the things I want Mr Shaw and the Ministry of Education to look at is this public thoroughfare that runs in the middle of the school that leads to a neighbouring community. Had it been that this road wasn’t here, the possibility exists that the killing wouldn’t have taken place on campus. If the gate was elsewhere, such person would have waited at the gate and would have to be interrogated and processed if they are coming onto the campus,” he said, in reference to the gunman.

Councillor Oneil Evans (People’s National Party, Christiana Division) and PNP aspirant for Manchester North Eastern Valenton “Val” Wint also visited the scene early Friday.

Evans said he knew Gentles very well.

“This is a close-knit community; north-east Manchester, everybody knows everybody and I was with him at a dead yard up to last night,” Evans said.

Manchester has recorded 45 murders since the start of the year compared to 39 for the corresponding period last year.

Friday morning’s murder was the second at a school in Christiana in recent months. On September 6, Cuthbert Lambert, otherwise called Jerome, 27, was shot dead by a gunman at the gate of Christiana Moravian Primary.

Wint said community intervention was done following that killing.

“We marched the last time we had a shooting at Christiana Moravian. The citizens have to join hands and hearts and see how we can get together as social agents and speak to our community members. This is really bad. This is the worst thing that could ever happen; it is a sad day for Jamaica,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Superintendent Duncan said the police will maintain a presence at the school, given that there are boarders on the property.