Students killed in Salt Spring triple murder identified
ST JAMES, Jamaica – Police have identified the two children and man killed in a triple murder along the Flower Hill main road in Salt Spring, St James Monday evening.
They are seven-year-old Justin Perry and nine-year-old Nahcoliva Smith, both students; and Tevin Hayle, otherwise called ‘Bancel’, 26. All three are from Salt Spring.
The three were shot dead when a gunman opened fire on a taxi they were in. Police believe Hayle was the intended target of the gunman.
READ: Two children among three killed in Salt Spring
Reports are that around 5:20 pm, the taxi operator was driving his grey 2006 motorcar from Salt Spring heading to Montego Bay with Perry and Smith on board.
Hayle reportedly stopped the vehicle and asked for a drive to his home. As Hayle entered the car, a man armed with a rifle immediately exited bushes along the right side of the roadway and opened gunfire at the vehicle, hitting him, Smith and Perry in the head and upper body.
The taxi driver drove to the Montego Hills Police Station. Hayle and both students were rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Police, upon processing the scene, found five 308 spent casings.
This is the latest in a series of deadly shootings that have rocked the Salt Spring community in recent times.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andrew Holness condemned the killing of two students, asserting that “violence in all its form is abhorrent and must be strongly punished.”
“…When violence touches our innocent children, who have their entire lives ahead of them, and robs our country of their potential, all of society must stand up and say, ‘enough is enough!’
READ: ‘Enough is enough’: Holness condemns brutal killing of two students in Salt Spring