By Claude Mills and Rasbert Turner, Staff Reporter/Gleaner Writer
Eleven-year-old Don Taylor is consoled by a family friend as he stood outside the premises where his father, Donald Taylor, and his stepmother, Marlene Taylor, were killed yesterday by gunmen during a robbery on Brunswick Avenue, Spanish Town, central St. Catherine. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer
SEVEN PERSONS were slain yesterday in four separate incidents, including a triple murder and a double-murder in downtown Kingston and Spanish Town, as the relative lull in criminal activity during the Christmas season was shattered by gunmen.
The other incidents involved a man whose body was set ablaze in the Majesty Gardens community of south-west St. Andrew, and a shooting death in Montego Bay, St. James.
The dead are: Donald Taylor, 51, and his wife, Marlene, 42, of Spanish Town, St. Catherine and an unidentified man; Edward Dunbar and Michael Johnson, of Kingston; a man identified only as 'Castelle', aged 35, of Olympic Way, Kingston 11, and Gilbert Grant of Montego Bay, St. James.
In Spanish Town, central St. Catherine, Mr. Taylor and his wife Marlene were killed by gunmen at their businessplace on Brunswick Avenue about 1:00 p.m. The killers took Mr. Taylor's licensed firearm.
A man who drove up in a van at the time of that shooting was also shot by the gunmen and he died while undergoing treatment at the nearby hospital. He was still unidentified up to press time.
Relatives of the Taylors stood outside the yellow crime scene tape, bewildered at the tragic turn of events. Georgia Taylor, Mr. Taylor's 26-year-old daughter, was overcome with grief as she spoke to a reporter.
"I was supposed to see him today. He had asked me to check out something for him, and I was up by the carwash when I heard the news... I was supposed to see him today," she said.
Mr. Taylor's other children, Marlene Taylor-Myers and 11-year-old Don, were also at the crime scene.
Reports are that about 1:00 p.m., explosions were heard at an ice-cream parlour which was operated by the Taylors on Brunswick Avenue. The police were called and on their arrival, the couple were found dead. An employee gave this account.
"I was in the bathroom, and I heard them beating him. They kept asking him, 'Whe de whole ah de money de?', and he said that's all the money they had. And then that's when I heard the gunshots. After everything calm down, I went outside and I saw that Mr. Taylor and his wife had been killed," he said.
In downtown Kingston, Mr. Dunbar and Mr. Johnson were in a car parked on East Queen Street, central Kingston, when a lone gunman went up to them and opened fire, killing both of them. A woman who was in the car at the time survived the attack.
The man identified as 'Castelle', aged 35, of Olympic Way, Kingston 11, was killed by unknown assailants in Majesty Gardens about 12:45 p.m. The police found Castelle's body on fire at the Tavares Market, Spanish Town Road. After the blaze was put out, it was discovered that the body had several gunshot wounds. According to the St. Andrew South Homicide Unit, Castelle was wanted in connection with two murders committed in the area.
In Montego Bay, Gilbert Grant was shot dead on King Street in the second city around 3:55 yesterday morning.
Yesterday's killings brought the island's murder toll since January 1, to 959.
