Members of staff and students of the Danny Williams School for the Deaf in Papine, St. Andrew, are still coming to grips with the tragedy that marred the school on Tuesday.

"Some persons are still in shock to see that in a small school environment that we have here, we have been exposed to this ... it is new and we wished that it never happened ... we are moving forward as best as we can," Maureen Simmons, principal of the school, told The Gleaner.

When The Gleaner visited the school on Wednesday, all the students of the 83 student population that were present, as well as the 17 member teaching staff, were locked in a counselling session, discussing the murder of the mother of one family member of the school.

On Tuesday, as the school session was about to commence, 35-year-old Rose-Marie Grey, who went to the school to drop off her four-year-old son, was shot twice by Sergeant Alderman Doran who had accompanied her. Grey died on the spot, but Doran, who within seconds of committing the murder allegedly attempted to take his own life, was still in intensive care at the University Hospital struggling for life.

"A number of staff members have expressed that the incident was a little overwhelming ... the counsellors have done some one-on-one sessions with individual teachers and have worked with the students in a group situation and some students have requested one-on-one sessions with some counsellors," Mrs. Simmons said.

Counselling

Counselling is being provided by the Victim Support Unit of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education and Youth through its Special Education Unit.

She said the majority of students expressed sadness, with one child commenting that, "a bad happened at our school yesterday."

Meanwhile, up to yesterday Sgt. Doran remained in hospital in critical condition under police guard.

According to Detective Sergeant Jubert Llewellyn of the Constabulary Communication Network, it appears clear that Sgt. Doran was the shooter.

"We have not received the forensic results yet, but from all indications, it would appear that he did the shooting," he told The Gleaner.