Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mark Shields, is calling for a joint partnership approach to combat the crime wave sweeping the western parish of St. James.

The British cop, who is on secondment to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, made the call following a tour of Bottom Pen in Glendevon and Salt Spring, two Montego Bay communities that have been experiencing increased gun violence this week.

"We need to work with other agencies because quite clearly the problems that the people in Salt Spring face are not just a result of policing inadequacies, or the lack of resources, it goes far deeper than that," DCP Shields said.

Recurring problem

"The fact is, we have a situation where young men have high-powered weapons and are prepared to go out and kill each other and anybody else that stands in their way. We can tackle the gunmen and we can lock them up, but then their sons are going to come along and that is a recurring problem," he added.

The upsurge of violence has claimed the lives of six men and left five other persons, including a 16-year-old schoolgirl, injured. The situation also forced a three-day closure of the Salt Spring Health Centre.

Meanwhile, the police yesterday arrested two men for the murder of 19 year-old Andre Turner, who was killed in Bottom Pen on Monday. The men, Chris Lee Bowen, 24, and 25-year-old Ricardo 'Ockeen' Sterling, also of Bottom Pen, were taken off a passenger bus during a roadblock in Hanover.

Investigators are also seeking Nicardo 'Canti' White and Lionel Lindo, also known as 'Foodie'.

White is wanted in connection with Turner's killing while Lindo has been implicated in the shooting of the girl - said to be White's sibling, on Wednesday morning.

"I have sought the intervention of the Peace Management Initiative to deal with the Bottom Pen situation," commented Member of Parliament for North West St. James, Dr. Horace Chang.

"We are trying to achieve a level of accommodation between the two contending forces ... the effort has had, I would say, some satisfactory response and we hope to make more progress."