Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator
The house at 29 Rushden Avenue, east Kingston, which was firebombed early yesterday morning, despite a curfew that was imposed in the Rockfort community following last Friday's killing of seven people. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
AFTER THEY gassed and lit the house with six children inside, the group of heavily armed gunmen hid in the dark backyard and called out the names of the children one by one, hoping they would step outside, so they could kill them.
Instead, the children, who live in the volatile east Kingston community of Rockfort, called their grandmother on her cellular phone and she instructed them to keep quiet and ignore the gunmen. Within seconds, residents saw the blaze and called the police, who were present as part of the curfew imposed on the troubled Rockfort community since last Friday.
Return to torch
The blaze was put out by the residents, but the daring gunmen returned several hours later, in the wee hours of yesterday morning, and set the house afire the house again.
"We lost everything, nothing nuh save," said Fae Thompson, owner of the torched house.
The dramatic incident took place at 29 Rushden Road, between late Monday night and early yesterday morning. The house which is located below Glasspole Avenue, is a stone's throw away from where 48-year-old Violet Williams and her 18-year-old daughter, Christina Bryan, were killed in execution style last Friday morning by gunmen.
Reports are that gunmen are anxious to kill another child, in reprisal for one of two children who were killed during last Friday's massacre. Four women, two children and a man were murdered during separate incidents, across the war-torn community, within a four-hour period.
Reports reaching The Gleaner are that following yesterday's incident, members of the underworld held a private meeting, with a view to calling truce. The community has been under siege over the past three months as a deadly internal feud has left several families torn apart and scarred for life.
