GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland — After riddling his body with bullets, the armed men who took Oshane Hamilton’s life in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, Monday night celebrated. But even as she grieved, his mother admitted that the recently reformed 26-year-old had been no angel.

Hamilton’s dramatic slaying has left the community shaken.

Residents told the Jamaica Observer that he was at a “drink up” in a bar in his Mint Road neighbourhood Monday night. He left on his motorcycle to attend another party.

“Explosions were heard shortly after and he was seen running towards the bar, but later collapsed,” one resident said.

One person who claimed to be an eyewitness said the armed men then stood over Hamilton’s body and pumped several more rounds into his body. They eventually rode away on a motorcycle in the direction of Mint Road.

“Mi hear around 12 shots, and some people run inna one shop. When everything settle now and dem peep and a come out, mi hear bam bam bam bam again, and everybody run back in again,” the resident said.

“Is like a celebration out deh — like how dem get dem man [their target], dem a celebrate. A bare shot dem fire inna di air,” the distraught resident added.

Hamilton’s ex-girlfriend and another man were also injured during the shooting. They are hospitalised in serious but stable condition, a police source said on Tuesday afternoon.

Hamilton’s mother, Stacey-Ann Barrett told the Observer that when she heard the gunshots she immediately thought of her son, who was not home.

“From mi hear the shot dem, him a di first person weh come to mi mind cause him nuh deh a him yard,” she said.

The sound of gunshots came as she sat in her yard, unable to sleep.

“Mi nuh know, mi just can’t guh a mi bed last night. Mi just feel different suh mi just sit down and hear the shot dem. When mi hear the shot dem, mi tell mi fiancé seh a shot dem. Same time, one bike wid two man a fly pass wi a guh Mint Road. When mi look and see it a come back mi seh, ‘Run!’,” recalled the distraught mother.

Then came word that her son had been killed.

“Mi heart tear up,” she said as she struggled to verbalise her pain.

She said although her son had been named in wrongdoings in the past, he had turned over a new leaf. Recently, his focus had been on his work, she said.

“Mi nah tell no lie — him name use to call inna things and then mi haffi get lawyer and dem kind a way deh, prove him innocent,” she disclosed.

Her son had landed a job at a hotel, she said, and was dedicating his time to that.

She admits that his murder has left her fearful.

“At the moment you will feel a little fear but mi always have God inna me. The thing is this: Mi nuh offended by nobody, mi nuh duh nobody nutten,” she proclaimed.

She said her son had been well-liked in his community. It is unclear how the residents of Crowder District felt about him after he was implicated in the murder of two goat herders from their community.

Sixty-five-year-old Henry “Maas Hen” Jones and 44-year-old Brian “Fowlie” Chambers went missing on December 13, 2021. Their bodies were found the morning after. They had been shot, their bodies mutilated. Named as a person of interest in their killings, Hamilton was taken into custody but later released.

According to police sources, he has appeared sporadically on their radar over the years.

He was also implicated in the theft of a lawman’s firearm, but the case ended after the cop’s resignation from the force.