Francis

"We can't bear much more," was the repeated sentiment of residents of the southwest St Andrew community of Greenwich Town yesterday morning after two shooting incidents in less than an hour.

Their comments came as a 19-year-old girl left the area known as 'Bottom Greenwich Farm' for the public morgue in downtown, Kingston to identify the bodies of her mother and sister.

Another victim, 24-year-old Stephen Hoytt, was battling for his life in hospital yesterday morning after he was admitted with multiple gunshot wounds on Tuesday.

Hoytt, better known as 'Anton', was shot hours after his common-law-wife and her mother were killed by the men who had attacked him.

Twenty-two-year-old Sasha Francis and her mother, Lisa Fong, 39, were killed in downtown Kingston less than an hour after the shooting in Greenwich Town.

"I can't speak about my mother and sister right now," 19-year-old Shanique told The Gleaner, with tears in her eyes, as she headed to the morgue.

Shanique and her 13-year-old sister are the only children left behind to mourn Fong's death.

Fong's common-law husband was also in tears as he struggled to deal with her death and the killing of his daughter.

"Sasha run a little bar for herself and the mother rent her car, but them not into any badness," he said, while the tears rolled down his face.

At the scene where the shootings started, residents had washed away the blood stains, but the bullet holes remained and the pain was evident.

When news of the shooting spread shortly before eight yesterday evening, Francis and her mother rushed to the Kingston Public Hospital to check on Hoytt who is the father of Francis' child.

Drive-by shooting

A bullet hole in this fence on East Avenue, Greenwich Town, was the tell-tale sign of a drive-by shooting, which left one man in hospital Tuesday night. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

As the car Francis was driving approached the hospital, men travelling in another motor vehicle opened fire at them, killing the two women.

There is no doubt in the minds of residents that they were followed from Greenwich Town by their attackers, but up to late yesterday the police were not as convinced.

"We are picking up information on that as we speak; but there is no tangible evidence on that to link both incidents," Michael Phipps, deputy superintendent in charge of crime at the South St Andrew Police Division told The Gleaner.

"Greenwich Town is an area over time it has given us some problems. We have seen in recent times where there is a number of killings and reprisal attacks, but we have managed to keep the area in check until yesterday," Phipps added.

He said the police had increased mobile and foot patrols in the community to put a lid on the violence.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com