By Nadine Wilson-Harris
Shushana Francis was among 45 persons left homeless following a gun and arson attack on her Walkers Avenue, Gregory Park community last Saturday, but while there remains so many uncertainties, the mother of two sought to assure the perpetrators that God’s judgement is sure.
“Is not me a go touch them, not even gunshot ago touch them, the judgement that is going to take them, member mi tell them,” she warned during a tour of the community by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson and Member of Parliament, Alando Terrelonge on Monday.
“Unnu mother, and unnu sister and unnu brother, go pray for them, because judgement is going to take them,” she said.
Francis was at home with her two children and her brother when a group of men armed with rifles and handguns descended on the community, threw gas oil on the houses and set them ablaze. Those who tried to escape the inferno were fired upon, and had no other choice but to retreat inside the burning buildings until their tormentors made their escape on foot.
Photos source: JIS
Raneel Haughton, A 28-year-old taxi operator from the community, died from gunshot wounds to his upper body and right arm, while an elderly lady who sustained burns all over her body, was hospitalised in serious condition.
When asked by the Prime Minister if she knew her attackers, Francis said women were also involved, but she does not know them.
“A lot of people see them and God see them too,” she assured, before adding, “Is one whole heap of them come down pon wi. One whole heap of them.”
As she recounted what unfolded, Francis was in tears. With a gold chain holding a cross close to her chest and her hands gesticulating, she showed the Prime Minister how she sought to keep her children safe during the horrific ordeal.
“God alone could have saved us when shot a buss and fire a blaze,” she said.
Francis said she has since been depending on the generosity of others to clothe and shelter her.
“Unnu a evil and unnu a wicked. Unnu go repent,” she warned the perpetrators.
The Prime Minister said the criminal activity was a “scar” on the nation and described it as an act of terrorism.
“When you consider it, that a gang of Jamaican citizens living in this community, they obviously know each other, some of them would have gone to school together, they are friends and they could be possessed by such evil… to come with cannisters of petrol and deliberately walk from house to house and throw the accelerant on the houses and set them on fire with children inside, it is not something that the State should tolerate in any way,” Holness said.
Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson, said the police had engaged some of the persons involved in the attack, but they managed to escape.
Francis was adamant that the perpetrators would not escape from God.
“Bare woman and pickney homeless; the amount of pickney in here. Woman have to be going away with them pickney and not even have clothes.”
“Mi a tell unnu ennu, u see what unnu do, if is even 100 years, unnu going to pay for it,” she proclaimed