Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

Spanish Town, St. Catherine:

A woman who went to drop off her two children at a primary school in St Catherine on Peace Day yesterday was shot and killed by an unknown assailant at the gate of the Angels Primary School.

She has been identified as Joan Taylor-Rogers, 40, of an Eltham address, who was affectionately called 'Jo' or 'Aunty' by students she would transport to institutions throughout Spanish Town.

Police reports are that about 8 a.m., Taylor-Rogers drove her Townace motor vehicle to the gate of the school, where she was pounced upon by a man who walked up to her vehicle and shot her twice in the head, killing her on the spot.

When The Gleaner visited the area, scores of police personnel were seen searching for clues while curious onlookers converged on the scene. Taylor-Rogers' body was still in the driver's seat with the safety belt in place.

Disruption on peace day

With the day being celebrated as Peace Day, the killing disrupted the message on the day's programme at the school.

That feeling was echoed by church minister Irvin Townsend, who told The Gleaner that he was there to speak to the students at devotion for Peace Day.

"I came this (yesterday) morning to minister at the devotion, but now I will have to do more than preaching. It's sad," he said.

Meanwhile, several parents were seen hurrying to take their children, some of whom were in tears, away from the scene.

Principal Garth Gayle said it was really a sad day.

"We will be calling in the (education) ministry's trauma team to give counselling to these students but, in the interim, we are still having classes," he said.

Yesterday, Education Minister Andrew Holness said he was very upset that the incident occurred in front of children, and that the ministry has provided counselling for the school community.

Taylor-Rogers was the fifth woman to be killed in St Catherine North since the start of the year.

On January 21, one of those women, Stephaleta Clarke, was shot and killed along Ferdie Neita Boulevard in Greendale, St Catherine, by unidentified men in a Nissan motor car. Clarke, 43, of Jones Avenue in the parish, had just left her nine and six-year-old children at school about 7:35 a.m. when the car drove up with two men, one of whom shot her.