Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

A woman looks through one of the windows shattered by bullets at the home of Angella Richards in Kraal, Clarendon, where four persons were killed by the police on May 7, 2003. - FILE

Although it happened five years ago, residents of the small district of Kraal, northern Clarendon, still remember the shooting incident which claimed the lives of four of their neighbours as if it had happened yesterday.

The bullet holes in the wall, near a glass window on the veranda of the ill-fated house, are a constant reminder of the four who were controversially killed by the police on May 7, 2003.

The official police report stated that Lowena 'Ferris' Thompson, Angella Richards, Kirk 'Renegade' Gordon and Matthew James were killed in a gun battle between the police and gunmen.

Police charged with murder

After several weeks of intensive investigations, Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and five rank-and-file members of the police force were charged with murder.

They were, however, acquitted in the Home Circuit Court, downtown Kingston, in December 2005.

Since then, there have been several changes to the death house.

The damaged door and shattered window panes have been replaced. The house has been repainted; and the bedroom in which at least three of the victims were killed has now been transformed into the living room of a Christian couple, Nigel and Sonia Spencer, and their two children, who are the new tenants.

Sonia is the niece of Isaac Johnson, the owner of the four-apartment house.

"We have been living here for the past two years and from time people would stop and ask a lot of questions in relation to the shooting incident," said Nigel Spencer, who seemed busy attending to his small farm near the perimeter fencing of the premises, when a Gleaner news team visited on Sunday.

The Spencers explained that they had never experienced any strange sensation inside the house.

"The only thing I can say is that people always refer to here as the house weh Adams shoot up," said Spencer.

Across from the house, several men were observed bushing roadside hedges near a monument erected on the sidewalk, with the names of the victims and a note claiming who had killed them.

The men were preparing for today's memorial.

Fifty-one-year-old Rastafarian, Vinton 'Jah T' James, is an elder in the community.

Wanted man

James disclosed that he was one of the men whom the police claimed they were looking for. He said it was not until the Scotland Yard investigators came, and he explained and showed them what had happened that his name was cleared.

"The white, tinted bus with the police came midday and observed who and who were at the house. I know they saw me, because I was sitting on the veranda at the time. They went and came back in the evening," said James.

According to the residents, the police returned and jumped out of the bus with blazing rifles.

"That is the first time anybody ever get killed in Kraal. Since that incident, nobody else has been killed," stated James.

Joseph Dixon, the then pastor of the First Holiness Apostolic Faith Church, Kraal, died two years ago. His successor, Charles Graham, stressed that once the district continued to celebrate this memorial, they would never overcome their grief.

glenroy.sinclair@gleanerjm.com