SUMMERFIELD, Clarendon – Jennifer Grey’s three children for Varrell Manning are now fatherless and she is wondering how they will ever move past his death. He was one of four men gunned down during an early morning attack on Wednesday in Summerfield, a usually quiet community near Chapelton in Clarendon.

“I got a call from a neighbour early this morning to say that a shooting happened and my babyfather is there. When I got here I saw all of them lying in there. I know all of them very well and don’t know of them giving trouble. It was Karaoke Tuesday, so the DJ was there. I am very cut up because two of the three [children] just passed for high school so this will be very hard to get over,” Grey told the Jamaica Observer.

According to the police, the incident took place about 1:15 am while the men were at a bar in the community.

Also among the dead is Varrell’s brother, Theo; 44-year-old Kish Brown in whose shop the murders occurred, and a man so far only identified as “Rasta” or “Tumpa”.

A video making the rounds provided a glimpse of the carnage that took place in the wee hours of the morning. One man, inelegantly sprawled on his back, one leg precariously caught on the base of a nearby bar stool had a large red stain near the armpit of his white sleeveless shirt. Next to him, also face up, another man with a blood stain high up on the left chest area of his black and white shirt. A few steps away, face down, yet another in a white sleeveless shirt, this time with two spots of blood to his back. The fourth man, clad in navy blue shorts and tan shirt, lay on his side.

Already rattled by the vicious attack, the community then had their usual routine disrupted as investigators processed the scene as day broke on Wednesday. With a section of the main road leading in and out of the busy town cordoned off, scores of students were inconvenienced. Checks with school administrators at Clarendon College revealed that several students arrived late for classes and were visibly traumatised. Chapelton All-Age, St Paul’s Anglican Basic and St Robert’s Bellarmine Prep schools in Chapelton were all affected. So, too, were students of Edwin Allen High, though to a lesser extent.

Member of Parliament for North Central Clarendon Robert Morgan sympathised with residents.

“It’s a really sad situation; we are not used to this sort of criminality. To lose four constituents in one incident is very traumatic for the community. This is a community that the police will tell you we don’t have these sort of things happening on a regular basis. But we live in a society where people are becoming very heartless and very brazen and we just have to join together as a community and just support each other in this time of grief,” he said.

Morgan said the incident will likely temporarily put a damper on activities within the community as well as residents’ livelihood.

“People are very concerned and nervous because we don’t know what the motive was or who did it and we have not gotten much information from the police where the motive would be coming from,” he said, adding that while residents are worried they are nevertheless resilient.

“The children are traumatised and the residents are concerned about their own safety and that of their children. The police have to do their work and as political representatives we have to play our role,” the MP added.

He said there have been ongoing efforts to dissuade youngsters from a life of crime and while murders were down by 13 per cent he has been speaking with Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang about how to address challenges being faced by police in the area.

On Wednesday, acting Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Area Three Glenford Miller appealed to residents to provide any information that may help shed light on the killings.

“This space is one of the quieter areas in northern Clarendon. It’s one of the areas that has not had any form of violence where crime is concerned. So when a situation like this takes place it actually shocks the entire community and we are looking to the entire community to come on-board and help us to solve this crime,” said the senior cop.

He added that the Community Safety and Security Branch (CSSB) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force has already been activated and will be providing grief counselling for those immediately affected.

For now, he and his team will be moving to curb the thriving nightlife within Summerfield which he said now “operates 24 hours” a day. They will start by reviewing the Noise Abatement Act, Miller noted.

“There are cut-off times for all the establishments. So we are going to see how best we can do some educational campaigns and implore persons that once it is the cut-off time then it should be closed,” he added.