27 taxi operators killed since start of the year — TODSS
KINGSTON, Jamaica— A taxi operator was shot dead last night on Red Sea Drive in Seaview Gardens in St Andrew last night, sending the taxi operators into another round of hand-wringing and grief.
The taxi operator’s death brings the tally to 27 killed since the start of the year, according to Egeton Newman, president of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS).
“It’s a recurring decimal, there’s no security for our sector, it is morning, noon and night, we are being slaughtered in the streets,” Newman told OBSERVER ONLINE.
“He is related to one of the senior directors in TODSS, the father of her daughter’s child. It is somebody who is very close to us. I heard his mother crying when they killed her son. It’s very sad,” Newman continued.
The deceased operator has been identified as 61-year-old Paul ‘Tony’ Allen.
The police reported that around 10:30 pm explosions were heard in the Seaview Gardens area.
Following checks, Allen was found slumped over the steering wheel of a grey Toyota Probox motor car along a roadway.
The body reportedly had what appeared to be gunshot wounds.
According to Newman, 38 taxi operators were killed last year, but the carnage has accelerated this year.
“One was killed three days ago in Waterhouse, ” Newman said.
Claude Mills