An­na-Lisa Paul

Two mur­ders in the West­ern Di­vi­sion have brought the mur­der toll to 196 for the year. The killings which took place in Diego Mar­tin and Pe­tit Val­ley re­spec­tive­ly and oc­curred three hours apart. In the first, around 5.30 pm on Tues­day, res­i­dents re­port­ed hear­ing loud ex­plo­sions com­ing from O'Don­ahue Street, Diego Mar­tin. Up­on check­ing, a neigh­bour found Akiel Braith­waite, 24, ly­ing on the road­way suf­fer­ing from mul­ti­ple gun­shot wounds.

Re­ports in­di­cate that Braith­waite, who was well-known to the po­lice, was lim­ing near his home when a car pulled up and two men alight­ed and be­gan fir­ing at him. He was shot sev­er­al times in the chest, ab­domen and back. Po­lice of­fi­cers at the scene rushed Braith­waite to the St James Med­ical Com­plex where he died whilst un­der­go­ing emer­gency surgery.

Cpl Sylvester of the Homi­cide Di­vi­sion is con­tin­u­ing en­quiries. In the sec­ond in­ci­dent, just af­ter 8 pm, Ron­nie Jem­mott was shot dead, me­tres away from his house at Fort Street, Up­per Sime­on Road, Pe­tit Val­ley. Around 8.15 pm, Jem­mott had just fin­ished speak­ing with a neigh­bour, and was walk­ing back to his house when he was ac­cost­ed and shot by an un­known gun­man.

Jem­mott's body was found some­time lat­er by a res­i­dent walk­ing through a track off Fort Street. Up to yes­ter­day, of­fi­cers were yet to es­tab­lish a mo­tive for the mur­der. Of­fi­cers vis­it­ing the scene in­clud­ed In­sp John, and Cpls Grant and Lin­ton.