ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica – A St Elizabeth councillor is appealing to residents of the parish to amicably resolve conflicts following four murders between Thursday night and Friday morning, which have raised concerns about crime in the south-central parish for the Yuletide season.

“All four murders have come as a shock to the citizens when we woke up to learn that it is not one or two, it is four, so it is concerning to us and we are just hoping that things may settle [and] go back to normal,” said Everton Fisher, People’s National Party Councillor for the Balaclava division.

It was a bloody Thursday night into Friday morning with three gun attacks, including a double murder in Goshen district where an uncle and his nephew were killed and a house firebombed.

Police named the deceased as Rajae Hagigal, 29, a businessman of Long Hill Road in Goshen, and his uncle Trevor Morgan, 46, otherwise called Spoony, a fisherman of Crawford district, both in St Elizabeth.

READ: Double murder in St Elizabeth, house firebombed

Head of the St Elizabeth police, Acting Superintendent Coleridge Minto told Observer Online that the Major Investigations Division has joined the probe into that double murder.

A police report said about 12:45 am residents heard explosions and alerted them. Observer Online was told that smoke was seen coming from the house and the fire department called. The police found the men with gunshot wounds inside the dwelling.

An hour later the police were called to Union district in Balaclava where another man was shot.

Residents named the deceased as Lennox Leachman, 46, a farmer and resident of Content. Leachman was said to be at a party when he was pounced upon by gunmen and shot. He succumbed to his injuries at hospital.

Fisher, the former Mayor of Black River, said he was familiar with Leachman.

“He was much loved in the community, got along with a lot of persons. It was indeed a shock to me,” said Fisher.

On Thursday night a farmer, Oneil Benjamin, also 46, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in Elim. A police report said about 6:30 pm Benjamin was at his gate when the occupants of a Toyota Axio motorcar opened fire, hitting him.

Fisher said the incidents occurred following consecutive months of reductions in crime.

“On the arrival of DSP Minto we have seen some good policing taking place and the statistics are there to show the recovery of firearms and all of that, so we are hoping that these incidents will not return to the parish,” said Fisher.

“I want to encourage all the citizens to restrain themselves from violent means, and try to settle their disputes in a peaceful way. What this [violence] will do for a peaceful community like Balaclava is rob the community of any festive celebration over the Yuletide season. Everybody will be affected. I don’t want to preempt the measures that will be put in place but most times [when] these things happen the police have to do crackdowns and all of that so, all in all, I would say to citizens: ‘Let us try to resolve our differences in a more amicable way,’ ” appealed Fisher.