Jamaican police say a five-year-old boy was shot and killed on Sunday as his family attended a funeral service in St. James, pushing the murder toll in the island to 1363 so far this year.
Police said Tavoy Cummings and a 24-year-old man, known only as ‘Isis’, were killed during the incident and the child’s father remains hospitalized in critical condition. The boy’s mother, who was also in the vehicle, escaped unhurt.
According to the police, the family was about to leave the funeral of Tomani Walters, who was murdered on September 20, when the vehicle in which they were traveling was fired upon by unidentified gunmen.
Cummings and the other man were pronounced dead at the hospital.
There are reports that ‘Isis” was a witness to the murder of Walters.
Reports also are that this is the second shooting incident in St. James within the past five days in which a child has been shot by gunmen while in his father’s arms.
A nine-month-old girl was shot and injured, and her father killed last Wednesday.
Police said the latest killings have pushed the murder toll in St. James to 187 this year, while overall, there have been 1,363 murders so far this year as compared with 1,287 for the corresponding period in 2021.
