MONTEGO BAY, St James — Gunshots echoed within the gated community of West Village in Montego Bay Monday, sending shock waves through what is usually a quiet community of mostly professionals. According to the police, there was a shoot-out and three men, who they said were suspects in last Friday’s fatal drive-by shooting at Hart Street in the city, were fatally shot by cops.

The names of the deceased were not ascertained up to press time. The police said two illegal firearms were seized during the incident.

“These men are said to be linked to that multiple shooting at Hart Street, Montego Bay on Friday,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Carlos Russell, acting commander of the St James Police Division, told the Jamaica Observer.

He was referring to a drive-by shooting that left two men dead and five others injured.

According to the police, sometime after 3:00 pm on Monday, the St James police were carrying out an operation in West Village and as they approached a house they came under gunfire. The cops reportedly returned fire and after the shooting ended the three men were found with gunshot wounds.

They were reportedly taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.

Access to West Village is heavily monitored, residents have to leave visitors’ names at the gate and visitors are asked to provide valid ID to get in. Many of the houses are used for short-term stays. On Monday, it remained unclear if the three men shot by the police lived inside the gated community.

“This is shocking, man, shocking!” said one resident who asked not to be identified by name.

“We bought into West Village so we would be safe from this sort of thing. What if me or my wife and children were driving by when all this was going on? This is very worrying,” the homeowner added.

The police have, in the past, warned that questionable characters are hiding out in the relative safety of some of the country’s gated communities.

“This makes me wonder who is living beside me,” said one woman who has rented a house inside West Village. She also opted not to be identified by name.

The community is a few metres from where Granville Police Station was located before it was razed by fire.

On Monday, there was a heavy security presence at the scene of the shooting and traffic going in and out of the community slowed to a crawl at some stages.

One man told the Observer he hopes Monday’s shooting will be the end of the saga that is said to have started with last Friday’s Hart Street drive-by.

“I hope there is no tit for tat, and if there is, that it is not in our community,” he said, his voice betraying his unease.

In last week’s incident men travelling in a silver Axio motor car sprayed gunshots on a group of people on Hart Street before speeding away from the scene.

One of the seven men shot, Exodus Dunkley from Flagstaff in St James, was pronounced dead upon arrival at hospital. The following morning, 27-year-old Malik McDonald of a Hart Street, St James, address, succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment.

The recent shootings have come at a time when there has been a significant decline in the number of murders in St James as the police work towards keeping murders under 100 in 2025.