MONTEGO BAY, St James — The St James police yesterday morning discovered in bushes at John's Hall in the parish the headless body of a man whom they theorise was one of the gunmen who ran amok in the community on Sunday, leaving seven people nursing gunshot wounds.

Up to late yesterday evening the police were yet to ascertain the identity of the beheaded man.

It was reported that about 2:40 pm Sunday a motor car with four men aboard drove up to a car wash in the Dam Road section of John's Hall and the occupants fired gunshots on a group of people at the facility, hitting four of them.

But before they could escape they were engaged in a firefight with an off-duty policeman who challenged them. ln their bid to escape, the gunmen reportedly sped off but shortly after the motor car they were travelling in collided with another vehicle.

The gunmen then reportedly opened fire on the occupants of that motor vehicle, hitting three people. They, along with the four shot at the car wash, were all rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH).

It was deja vu for residents of the community, who recalled the January 3, 2021 shooting death of 24-year-old security guard Kenroy “Ken” Sinclair, 44-year-old farmer Dean Reid, both also of Dam Road, who were shot and killed next-door to the same car wash. Both were part of a group playing dominoes when tragedy struck. Three other men were also shot and injured in that attack.

A reliable source told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that an eyewitness to the January double murder who had been at the car wash on Sunday might have been the target of the latest attack.

Meanwhile, Dr Delroy Fray, clinical coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority, complained that the spike in shootings was putting a strain on the medical staff at CRH. He said that between Saturday and Sunday six surgeries were performed on gunshot victims, four of whom were victims of Sunday's attack.

“On Sunday, our surgeons started operating at about 3:00 pm and they didn't finish until 4:00 am this morning. So that is self-explanatory of the sort of impact this creates in terms of manpower, resources and every aspect of hospital care,” Dr Fray said yesterday.