Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Police Commissioner Francis Forbes yesterday stressing a point as he addressed journalists at a news conference at Police Officers' Club, Hope Road.
THE NATION, long experiencing a diet of violent killings, yesterday, the 237th day of the year, recorded its 583rd murder since January 1, with 129 days to go to year-end.
A 47-year-old auxiliary policeman who was shot 15 times outside his gate in Westmeade, Portmore, St. Catherine, was among five people killed between Wednesday night and yesterday afternoon, pushing the year's murder toll to 583.
The trail of blood stretched from Westmeade to Hellshire Heights, about six miles away and also in St. Catherine, to Oxford Road, Spanish Town, before ending late yesterday afternoon with a double murder in Plantation Heights, St. Andrew.
The victims are: District Constable Dwayne Murdock, the ninth policeman killed by gunmen since January; Paul Wright; Nigel Nelson, a teenager; and two men who were found in Plantation Heights with their hands and feet bound. They were unidentified up to press time last night.
The D/C Murdock who was assigned to the Bridgeport police station, Portmore, St. Catherine, died shortly after 8 o'clock Wednesday night. Police reports say that as D/C Murdock drove into the car park near his house in Westmeade, two gunmen sprayed him with bullets before he could pull his gun. He died at the scene. The killers fled with his 9mm semi-automatic pistol.
Five hours later, Mr. Wright was attacked by gunmen while sitting in his car on a lonely strip of beach at Hellshire Heights. Police said the gunmen demanded money from Mr. Wright, and when they did not get it, they shot him, killing him then and there.
Young Nelson was stabbed in the chest shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday during a row with another man. He died while undergoing treatment at the Spanish Town Hospital.
The bodies of the two men were found on a dirt track in Plantation Heights; each had two bullet wounds to the head. They were both gagged and their hands and feet bound.
The spate of crime throughout the island has led members of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica to call on the Government to seek overseas help, if the security forces were not capable of handling the matter.
