WATCH: ‘God alone could have saved us’ – Gregory Park resident recounts horror gun and arson attack
ST CATHERINE, Jamaica – Shushana Francis was at home with her two children and her brother on Walkers Avenue in Gregory Park on Saturday morning when shots rang out and fire began blazing.
The community was under a gun and arson attack, which left one man dead, one woman nursing severe burns and some 45 people, including 18 children, homeless.
“God alone could have saved us when shot ah buss and fire ah blaze,” Francis told Prime Minister Andrew Holness as he toured the area on Monday along with Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson and Member of Parliament Alando Terrelonge.
A tearful Francis recounted the horror of the morning and its uncomfortable aftermath.
“One whole heap of them (criminals) came down on us…. My little baby had to run behind the mattress to hide from fire,” Francis said.
“I have to now be living like a waste… I have to be walking and begging my family (for) clothes,” she continued. “A lot of women and children are homeless.”
READ: Cabbie shot dead, several homes firebombed in Gregory Park
The horrific incident reportedly began to unfold about 3:50am.
A 28-year-old taxi operator from the community, Raneel Haughton, otherwise called ‘Rum Punch’, and a friend were sitting on a car on Walkers Avenue when shots rang out.
They ran in a bid to escape during which Haughton sustained gunshot wounds to his upper body and right arm and collapsed.
A group of men armed with rifles and handguns then made their way to the homes where residents wer asleep. They reportedly threw gas oil on the houses then set them ablaze and opened gun fire which awoke the occupants of the households.
While the occupants were escaping from the burning buildings, they were fired at by gunmen and forced to retreat inside the burning houses resulting in one woman sustaining burns all over her body.
The shooters then escaped in the area on foot.
The police were summoned and Haughton and the woman were taken to the Spanish Town Hospital where Haughton was pronounced dead on arrival while the woman was admitted in serious condition.
A 48-hour curfew has since been imposed in a section of Gregory Park, while the St Catherine South Police have listed 13 individuals as persons of interest in connection to the violence in the community.
