Popular blogger killed because of gang war – cops
CLARENDON, Jamaica — Police say an ongoing gang feud is behind the gun attack that claimed the life of a well-known media practitioner/blogger in Hayes, Clarendon on Saturday night.
Dead is 36-year-old Leon McNeil more popularly known as YouTuber Leegates.
Leegates who was killed by unknown assailants at a party in Hayes in the parish, was among three men who were killed in two separate gun attacks on Saturday.
Information reaching OBSERVER ONLINE are that about 8:55 pm, a group of men approached McNeil and opened fire at him at the event. Another patron was also injured during the gunfire.
McNeil and the wounded individual were transported to the hospital where the former reportedly died while being treated.
The other injured person was hospitalised in stable condition.
Many social media users believe McNeil was shot dead because of comments he made about a double murder in Portland Cottage in the parish a few hours earlier.
In the double murder, Derrick ‘Red Fox’ Matthews, 39, a taxi driver from Wildman Town, Portland Cottage and Michael Newland, 47, from Board Villa, Lionel Town in Clarendon, were shot dead on Portland Cottage main road.
The Lionel Town police said about 4:10 pm, Matthews was transporting residents, including Newland, in his public passenger vehicle. Upon reaching a section of the Portland Cottage main road, he pulled over to let out a passenger.
It alleged that the same passenger brandished a firearm and opened gunfire at the vehicle before fleeing the scene. The police were summoned, and, on their arrival, both men were seen with multiple gunshot wounds. They were taken to the hospital where they were pronounced dead.
But police sources say McNeil, who operated Leegates TV and Entertainment, might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to lawmen, an ongoing feud between men from the area is believed to be what caused the attack at a party where McNeil and the other man were shot.
McNeil was prominent in covering the Cocoa Piece, Clarendon murders of five people, including a woman and her four children last June.
