Homeless horror - Streets filled with trembling as four chopped to death in Kingston 15 months ago in January 2021.
The cold, haunting streets of Kingston were frozen with fear on Monday night as the capital’s nomads snuggled in corners or retreated to shelters in the aftermath of the grisly murders of four homeless men and the wounding of two others.
The macabre scenes spanned an arc of 9.5km (6.0 miles), stretching from the shopping strip of Half-Way Tree to downtown and further west near Bumper Hall.
Kingston Mayor Delroy Williams called the incidents a “stain” on the nation. The investigations might also delve into questions of whether the savagery was the work of a serial killer. It is uncertain whether the acts were committed by a single person.
Barrington Hall bemoaned the murder of his soulmate and friend ‘Soljie’, one of the four men killed in the streets.
Two deceased were found on Hanover Street in the Kingston Central Police Division and a fourth in Kingston West in the vicinity of the Mother White Bridge.
The injured men were found at a Constant Spring Road plaza and on Derrymore Road in the St Andrew Central Police Division.
There are an estimated 2,000 homeless people in Jamaica, around 700 of them in Greater Kingston. The capital’s downtown region accounts for about 500 of them.