ST JAMES, Jamaica — Councillor Joshua Cummings, who represents the Norwood Division where the burnt bodies of two men were found Friday morning, wants a more visible police presence in the area. His call comes even though the community has benefitted from increased security for more than a year, under its designation as a Zone of Special Operations.

“The place is now really tense. When I call around and listen to persons, it is a bit tense right now and it needs the police presence in a more aggressive way now to kind of stabilise that tension so that people can feel a bit more relieved with their presence,” appealed Cummings, who was elected on a Jamaica Labour Party ticket.

“I think they need to start patrolling the area some more, be more visible so persons can see them and feel a little more comfortable and release some of those tension,” he added.

Cummings told OBSERVER ONLINE that, in the last few weeks, there have been gang-related incidents of violence within the community. He stressed, however, that he was not linking Friday’s deaths to these episodes. Norwood has a long history of violence.

The ZOSO has helped but in March of this year a17-year-old male was shot and killed. Just a few hours later, eight people were shot, three fatally allegedly in an act of reprisal.

On Friday, shocked residents on Hacca Lane in the community woke up to news that the charred remains of two men were found in a burnt out house. The men have so far only been identified by their aliases ‘Shane’ and ‘Smokey’.

According to a police source, they are still treating the matter as a death investigation — and not murder — because they have not yet been able to accurately determine a cause of death.

There have been hushed whispers to suggest that both men were shot and killed and the house then set ablaze sometime after midnight. During a visit to the community, residents refused to speak or said they knew nothing.

“Everybody just wake up and hear. Nobody nuh know nutten, mi a tell you the truth. If them tell you say them nuh know nutten, them a tell you the truth,” said one woman.

She said she heard nothing during the night but awoke about 7:30 am to the sound of another woman crying.

“A the strangest thing; mi never hear and look how close the houses them deh, we don’t have a clue,” she insisted.

One man also expressed surprise that the incident was near to his house yet he heard nothing.

However there were reports of a barrage of gunfire before the house was engulfed in flames.

The police were alerted to the sound of explosions and they called in the fire department when they arrived at the scene. The bodies of both men were found in the rubble.