Downtown Kingston was tense yesterday after a man was chopped and stabbed to death, and his body dragged about 80 yards before being left on a pavement in front of the Redemption Market on West Street.
By Karyl WalkerPolice said that passers-by who saw the body called them to the scene at about 10:40 am.
Up to press time, the lawmen had no motive for the killing but sources downtown say the man, who lived in the pro-People's National Party enclave of Matthews Lane, lost his life because he unwisely drifted into territory frequented by rivals from within his community.
"All of them know them one another and him dead because him stray," one onlooker, who opted not to supply a name, told the Observer.
Although the dead man was not identified by the cops, some persons who had stopped to get a glimpse of the body were overheard referring to him as "Rankin".
Yesterday, his shirtless body lay on its back in the sweltering mid-morning sun. A pair of bloodied knee-length jeans pants, white sneakers and ankle-high white socks covered his body from the waist down.
A gaping wound in his rib cage and a hole at the top of his head told the story of the stab wounds that had been inflicted on him. A jagged piece of bone jutted out from his left arm, just below a large chop wound below his elbow.
A trail of blood, which began inside the Oxford Mall Arcade and ended at the spot where cops found the body, indicated that he was probably killed in the arcade and dragged to West Street, widely known as the borderline between the Matthews Lane-based Spanglers gang and the Shower gang from the Jamaica Labour Party stronghold Tivoli Gardens.
Earlier this month, Matthews Lane and surrounding areas were tense after some community members demanded that strongman Donald "Zeeks" Phipps leave the area or be killed.
The demand was reported to have been made by one of Zeeks' former lieutenants who, along with other men, were chased from the area. This group fell out of grace with Zeeks, according to Observer sources, and since then have vowed to have his head. The internal conflict has left the area tense since then.
