Gareth Manning and Athaliah Reynolds, Gleaner Reporters

An angry mob chopped to death three men accused of stealing a goat in Westmoreland in a bloody weekend which saw at least 10 Jamaicans being killed.

Reports from the police are that, about 8:30 Saturday night, the three men were seen with a goat in a Toyota motor car on a farm in Fort William district.

An alarm was raised and residents converged on the scene, beating and chopping the men to death.

The murder wave sweeping the country, which has claimed more than 1,500 victims, prevented yet another young university student from seeing the dawn of a new year.

Marvin Smith, 25, a final-year history major at the University of the West Indies, was shot dead by gunmen at his gate on Tavern Drive, Papine, on Saturday night.

Robbed, killed

Reports are that, about 10:15 Saturday night, Smith and two friends were at his gate when they were approached by three armed men. They were robbed of their cellular phones, jewellery and an undetermined sum of money. The gunmen then ordered them to run before opening fire, killing Smith.

He was taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies where he was pronounced dead.

Residents say his death could have been fuelled by a dispute at a football game a week ago after a with one of the three gunmen.

His death has left a hole in the community for many residents.

"He's one of the first youths on the corner to go to university. Him inna him final year and we expected big things from Marvin, mi cyaan believe seh di youth gone dem way deh," said a close friend of Smith's.

Dashed dreams

He is the second university student killed in Papine this month. On December 16, 21-year-old Diondra Morris was killed by a gunman at her gate on Market Street. Another student was left paralysed by the gunman's bullets during the same incident.

"He was a soldier in the war against decadence and poverty, one of the youths who wanted to make a big difference," an obviously saddened mentor and lecturer Dr. Orville Taylor said of Smith.

Dr. Taylor said he met Smith a few years ago at a church service in the community before he was a student at UWI. He said Smith was a youth leader in his community who was focused and very concerned about the turn the country was taking.

"He understood that it wasn't simply about middle-class benevolence for grass-roots people to come into an understanding of where they were going but by elevating themselves through education and he was doing exactly that," the UWI lecturer recalled.

"The truth is, the politicians need to take some blame for the system they have created ... We create a set of young men who then create another set of young men who have absolutely no value for human life, including their own ... I don't think that they understand (that) in taking out a young man like this, they are taking out the hope of an entire generation," he added.

In another part of the Corporate Area, four men were shot as they played cards in a yard on Sunlight Street in west Kingston Saturday night. Two died.

They have been identified as 23-year-old Icorey Davis and 19-year-old Mickel Simpson. The other two are in hospital.