Friends killed hours apart – Bloody holiday
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| Bloody holiday |
On Christmas Day, Orane Blackwood was chilling with his friend Ricardo Morgan down on Beeston Street in central Kingston, where they both resided.
The 25-year-old said that he had a bad feeling that someone from their community was about to die, but little did he know that he and Morgan were living their final hours. They were murdered by gunmen in separate incidents 14 hours apart.
“On Christmas morning he was outside with Ricardo and a woman, and him keep on a say him feel say somebody a go dead. Him come back outside and all of us sit down, and him say him want him hair cornrow in five because him a go trim him locks, and then mi leave to go on the road,” a relative said.
According to police reports, at about 3:05 p.m., Blackwood, a customer service representative, was shot by a lone gunman traveling on foot. He was assisted to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) where he died while undergoing treatment. The relative described Blackwood as an ambitious and hard-working individual.
“Orane was a very nice and intelligent person. He is fulled a ambition. If yuh look in his room, is him build his bed and mirrors. Him fix up him place. He was working online for a call centre and was suppose to start working in the office tomorrow (today). Him nuh trouble people, so I don’t know why somebody would want to kill him,” she said.
Blackwood reportedly used an ATM on the Kingston Central Police Station compound and was returning home when he was attacked.
“Mi siddung on Smith Lane and hear di gunshot dem and run off. At first, mi and mi sister think a mi bredda a get shot, because him and Orane resemble. Somebody tell we say a Orane, and mi run go over deh and try fi help him. Him beg mi to help him up, and a say him nah dead. Di whole a him blood did deh all over mi skin, and a inna di night mi go bathe. Him did a talk strong, mi never know him would dead about an hour later,” she said.
Upon hearing the dreadful news, Morgan reportedly cried for hours. The 19-year-old, who lived a few steps away from Blackwood, worked as a laborer and planned to buy a motorcycle in 2022. But that will never be as he was found lying in his doorway on Sunday with a gunshot wound to his eye.
“Him did a bawl and behave really bad when Orane dead. Him go in, and we did a wonder how we nah see him from morning. People go over the yard, but no one knew he was dead. In fact, someone saw the person lying at the doorway, but thought it was the old man that he lived with was lying down and cooling out, because he usually does that,” a resident said.
“Afterwards, his sister go by the house. But the room did dark, so she say she a wonder how her brother nah move, and when she turn on the light she realise say him dead with a shot in his eye. A bare blood she see,” the resident added.
The police stated that at 5 a.m., residents reportedly heard an explosion. Morgan was found by a resident at approximately 12:20 p.m. with a single gunshot wound to his left eye.
