Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Chamoy Hanson, nine, is a picture of grief as he looks through his window yesterday while mourning the death of his seven-year-old sister, Shaneal Raffington (inset), who was shot and killed by gunmen on Grants Pen Avenue, St. Andrew, on Sunday night. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
ON SUNDAY, Sherene Fraser and her two children left their Grants Pen Avenue, St. Andrew home to attend the funeral of a church colleague at the Church of God and Saints of Christ in Mountain View.
The 39-year-old mother suffered even more grief on her way back home, as the life of her seven-year-old daughter was snuffed out by a gunman's bullet.
The child, Shaneal Raffington, a student of the Shortwood Practising and Junior High School, succumbed to injuries about 12:30 yesterday morning at the University Hospital of the West Indies. The slain girl is also the daughter of Constable Rohan Raffington of the Clarendon Police Division.
"One time them use to shoot only man, but now they are not even sparing the children or women," said one woman among a group who spoke with a Gleaner news team on Grants Pen Avenue yesterday.
Reports are that shortly after 8:00 p.m., Ms. Fraser and her two children were walking up Grants Pen Avenue when, on reaching an area where several vehicles were parked, two gunmen ran from behind a truck and began firing indiscriminately.
SHOT IN THE HEAD
One of the bullets punched a hole in Shaneal's head. Relatives and friends who accompanied her to the hospital watched as she took her last breath.
Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Deputy Superintendent Beau Rigabie, the operations officer for St. Andrew, said the police were unaware of the circumstances that led to the renewed eruption of violence in the Grants Pen community.
"We are now trying to intervene and have dialogue with the people, but so far we have not been successful," the DSP Rigabie said.
