By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter 
A roadblock mounted at the intersection of East Queen Street and Smith Lane in Central Kingston yesterday. - Norman Grindley
REPUTED MATTHEWS Lane area leader, Donald 'Zekes' Phipps, failed to show at a scheduled peace meeting in downtown Kingston yesterday with rival factions from 'Tel Aviv' and 'Spoilers' communities, heightening the tension in the nation's capital.
Scores of disheartened residents left the Coke Methodist Church yesterday almost in tears. They had hoped the meeting would quell the feud between rival gangs allied to the People's National Party, while some were hoping for the opportunity to return to the downtown commercial district to peddle their wares and earn a living.
"A Princess Street me sell and me can't go a town. Me have to depend on me selling fe pay me rent, eat food and look after me pickney dem," complained one woman.
This was after hundreds of residents from Tel Aviv and Spoilers, led by their former PNP Member of Parliament , Colonel Leslie Lloyd, marched to the Coke Methodist Church on East Queen Street, where they were supposed to have met 'Zekes'.
But after waiting for more than 30 minutes, the crowd dispersed and returned to their respective communities in Central Kingston, where they requested a meeting with the top brass of the PNP.
"This is total disrespect, the people are here and him (Zekes) don't turn up," remarked Colonel Lloyd.
But informed police sources told The Gleaner that Zekes' no-show related to security concerns, and that the area leader had said he was taking no chances.
"Zekes said he doesn't trust anybody," a senior police officer told The Gleaner yesterday.
While the police are trying to put a lid on the situation, sections of Central Kingston have been under curfew for the past three nights.
In the meantime, several roads remained blocked, while another man was shot in the vicinity of King and Beeston streets yesterday afternoon. At least eight persons have been killed since last weekend in the simmering feud between rival factions of the PNP from Central Kingston, and Matthews Lane and its environs.
Reports are that following the intervention of influential members of the PNP, both factions were supposed to have met and reviewed plans to end the gun violence which erupted in sections of downtown Kingston two weeks ago.
Checks by The Gleaner revealed that there has been a sequence of events over a period of time, which has led to the escalating gunfight between the two factions. The situation turned ugly following the gun-slaying of Steve Dick, a top man from Tel Aviv, who was killed along Charles Street last week.
In a reprisal, a drive-by shooting in the King and Beeston streets area Friday night claimed the lives of two persons and left six others injured. Residents downtown threw up blockades to their communities as reprisals continued Saturday.
It is alleged that a large number of men, believed to be from both warring communities, were attacking and beating, and have killed persons who were in downtown Kingston.
