It was a roadblock within a roadblock yesterday afternoon as residents of lower Mountain View Avenue used debris to block sections of the thoroughfare in protest against what they described as the unlawful shooting of two men in the community.

The police had earlier cordoned off sections of Mountain View Avenue due to a flare-up of gang violence at about 11:30 a.m., which claimed the life of one man, Ijah Young, on Bygrave Avenue in the Mountain View area.

According to a resident who claimed to have witnessed the incident, the men, who were travelling on a motorcycle down Mountain View Avenue, diverted on to Chaves Avenue when they were told that there had been a flare-up in a lower section of the community.

Check family

One of many residents filled with rage.

"So youth dem say dem ride dis side come up fi come check dem family. A police in a white top and short pants see the youth dem and then just start fire shot and the bike eventually stop," the eyewitness told The Gleaner yesterday. "One of the youth dem come off a the bike and policeman go over the man and shoot the man," he claimed.

The other man was also shot. They were both taken to the Kingston Public Hospital where one of the men was pronounced dead and the other admitted. He is under police guard. Neither of the men is from the Mountain View Area. The deceased has been identified as Ramone Hopkins of Henderson Avenue, Kingston 11. The injured man, 21, is of Wavel Avenue, in Kingston 11.

But the police give a different account.

They say police investigations led them to Chaves Avenue where they saw two men on a motorcycle. When they saw the police, they opened fire. The police traded bullets with the men and two were hit. A .45 semi-automatic pistol was recovered from the scene.

Police removed the roadblocks yesterday afternoon but the area remained tense up to late yesterday evening.