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By Racquel Porter
A mass shooting at a wake in Back Pasture, Point Hill, St. Catherine, left one man dead and six other persons wounded.
The wake was for the grandmother of reggae artiste Christopher Martin.
The police said the shooting started about 12:33 a.m. as the gunmen continued on their rampage in the community.
When the shooting subsided, 34-year-old farmer O'neil Spencer was found dead just metres away from where the wake was held.
He was described as a respectable person.
The daughter of the deceased woman for whom the wake was being held, told Radio Jamaica News that she was inside the kitchen when pandemonium erupted in the quiet community.
"Mi get up and mi look down to where the booth was, mi see everybody running to where I was, and it was just chaos," she bemoaned, adding: "We see it all the time on the television and you hear it, but mi never know seh mi woulda experience it."
The woman, who said she remains in a daze, insisted the shooting was unnecessary.
"Pulling the trigger is not the answer for anything," she urged those involved in crime. "At the end of the day enuh, one day your life aguh get cut down too, so we affi be so careful," she cautioned.
In a post on his Instagram account, Christopher Martin condemned the shooting; he also expressed sympathy to the families of those affected.
A woman who was among the wounded has been released from hospital.
In light of the shooting, Commanding Officer for the St. Catherine North Police, Superintendent Hopton Nicholson, said the issuance of event permits will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
He said preliminary information indicates that there was no permit for the wake.
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