NEWS of the brazen murders of sisters Tamara Reddy and Nadine Cassanova -- vendors at the Spanish Town Market in St Catherine — was heavy on the tongues of everyone who visited the shopping area on Friday.
For the sisters' customers, their deaths came as a grim surprise; to other vendors, the killings highlighted the dark realities of life in the old capital; while for their relatives, it was an act they swore to avenge.
The two were gunned down and another man shot and injured inside the market Thursday evening. The man is still hospitalised.
Between them, the slain siblings left seven children motherless.
"Right here dem get shot. Right here where me sit down, me two friend dem lie down last night, dead," lamented a male CD vendor, pointing to the intersection of Adelaide and French streets where two gunmen pumped several bullets into the twitching bodies of Reddy and Cassanova as they lay sprawled out on the roadway.
"One lie down over there, while the other drop right here. Pure blood, everybody a run up and down," said the man, describing the scene the night before.
"Not even two minutes after me leave the corner dem murder me friend dem just like that," continued the man, his face crumpled in a grief-stricken grimace.
"As Nadine hear the gun select (being primed) and she turn around, dem shoot her in her eye, and then dem just start put it on on her sister after that," added an alleged eyewitness.
"Is the same time I run off, and when me look back up the road all I see was pure gunsmoke. I don't know how I didn't get shot," said the alleged witness, still visibly shaken by the ordeal.
Two of Cassanova's female customers stood speechless as they listened to the tales of her demise. As if the stories were not gruesome enough, the terrified women were offered pictures and videos of the women's corpses taken by cellular phone.
For one, the sight was too much to bear. She bolted from the market after viewing the gory images. The other, however, continued looking at the footage, covering her mouth in horror.
"I can't believe is she that, is just the other day I come buy food from her," she blurted out.
The disbelief was even more heart-rending at a nearby bar where the bartender said, "everybody that come in here from morning just a cry. Nobody can't believe that is dem two woman dere dem kill."
One of the male patrons lamented the shooting of the man, who he said was his friend.
"The man get four shot; two in one foot, one in the other, and one in him bottom, 'cause he was running from them. The worst part, him don't even do them nothing, the man just a go 'bout him business," he said.
Up to late yesterday afternoon, police said they were still investigating leads suggesting that members of the notorious Klansman gang may have been behind the attacks.
"I can't confirm anything, but everything is pointing in that direction," said Deputy Superintendent Victor Hamilton of the St Catherine North Police Division.
Hamilton said cops in the division are bracing for possible reprisals.
"All our energies are concerned with proactive operations. Our primary focus is creating buffer zones," he said. "We just have to clear up this particular crime because it has implications for many other crimes, and we have to prevent them (gunmen) from getting at each other."
Hamilton said additional personnel and resources have been deployed on the streets to maintain the peace. He encouraged persons to report any suspicious gatherings in their communities.
The intersection of Adelaide and French streets is a known stomping ground for members of the One Order criminal gang, the arch-enemies of the Klansman. Vendors inside the market speculated that the gunmen turned their wrath on Reddy and Cassanova when they did not see any of their male rivals.
"A kill man fi go back round there go kill back some of them bwoy dere you nuh. Is true you not even know," said one of the sisters' male relatives, who wept bitterly at the spot where they were killed.
"You are going to have nuff more stories to write, because this not going to just done so; people have to dead back," he told the Sunday Observer.
Up to late yesterday afternoon the market was still tense, although a vendor said that customers of the deceased are slowly returning to the area.
19:07
LIQUID NEWS ENGINE
