Adrian Frater and Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporters
POLICE IN St. James moved quickly yesterday to identify and offer protection to three persons whose names appeared on a list which, they said, included those of 10 other persons, who have been killed by gunmen in the parish over the past five years.
They are also using in-house handwriting expertise to help them track down those responsible for the 10 murders.
According to a well-placed police source, they are now seeking to identify three men who were named on the list only as Junior, Kevin and Dwayne and who might have been involved in disputes or have been linked with three men who were killed by the police in the area on Friday. Their names reportedly appeared beside a notation which read "almost victims". The names of the 10 who were killed had the date they were murdered and their occupations written beside their names.
The list which the police said was found at the scene of last Friday's shoot-out between the police and five gunmen in Norwood, is being categorised as "very helpful information" by Superintendent John Morris, the crime chief for Area One, which covers the parishes of Trelawny, Westmoreland and St. James.
According to Supt. Morris, the list, which was written on a folder leaf, clearly showed that the person who compiled it was familiar with the details behind some of the killings as the dates and places mentioned matched perfectly with the police's information on the incidents mentioned.
"It is clear that the person who compiled the list wanted to keep an accurate record of each killing," said Superintendent Morris, who was clearly disturbed by the brutality of those involved. "It clearly speaks to people with devious minds and cruel intentions."
Supt. Morris said that police will be comparing the handwriting on the list to another document, also acquired by police, which appears to bear writing similar to that which was on the list. He stressed that the document, a book leaf, was not another list of murder victims or intended victims but a request to a television pastor for a prayer for healing of someone's relative, which the police found on the same premises where the shoot-out took place on Friday.
A 13-year veteran in forensic document examination said yesterday that handwriting analysis can sometimes lead to clues in a variety of cases ranging from fraud to murder and kidnapping. The handwriting experts, she said, can act as expert witnesses in court.
In Friday's shooting incident, which preceded the discovery of the list, three of five gunmen, who reportedly engaged the police in a shoot-out, were killed while the other two escaped. Those killed have since been identified as Vencott Dennis, Christopher Blair and Nagibe Pyne. Two illegal firearms were reportedly recovered from the scene.
"We see this list as very important in our ongoing investigations into various murders committed in the parish," said Supt. Morris. "In addition to possibly helping us to solve some of these murders, we believe this information will also help us to monitor the crime situation in the parish."
Among the list of those named as 'murdered' include Constable Alton 'Buju' Grey, formerly of the Montego Bay police, who was shot and killed in Rosemount in August 1998. The lawman who was off duty at the time, was shot and seriously injured as he tried to protect a female companion, who was being hassled by three armed men. He subsequently died in hospital.
