Barbados Today

KINGSTON – Police were busy setting up yellow tapes and processing crime scenes in the Corporate Area yesterday, following the murder of at least two men, one of whom is popular dancehall producer Patrick Samuels, otherwise called ‘Roach’.

Police reported that Samuels – formerly the road manager of incarcerated dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel – was shot after leaving a party on Manning’s Hill Road in St Andrew, about 4:30.

The police force’s information arm, the Constabulary Communication Network, said that he left the party to respond to a phone call, when he was attacked and shot multiple times. The incident occurred at a popular service station, said investigators, who added that Samuels died at hospital.

Samuels’s death sparked much discussion on social media and entertainment websites yesterday. One website reported that he was inside his vehicle when the gunmen started firing.

Samuels tried to escape but his attackers fired three more gunshots into the vehicle, which later crashed, the site said.

It wasn’t clear yesterday whether or not Samuels may have been targeted for a recent YouTube post in which he lambasted at least one other producer and a string of dancehall artistes for being “poison” to the multi-billiondollar music industry. Investigators, however, said they are probing all leads.

In the meantime, vendors and their customers rushed for cover when gunshots rang out in the vicinity of the Captain’s Bakery on Orange Street in downtown Kingston.

When the shooting subsided, the body of fish vendor Rohan Grant was found with multiple bullet wounds. His attacker escaped in the excitement, police said.

According to one coconut vendor, one customer sought refuge under her apron as the gunshots rang out.

“Is a good thing I always check myself before I leave cause the woman push har head right under my frock when the shot a fire,” she said, now laughing as she recalled the frightening ordeal.

“I just hear pure gunshots and I run guh bend down over there so. Is that time me see the woman run come,” she said.

Police said that Grant was a resident of a nearby community. Up to late yesterday police were still trying to identify a motive for the shooting. (Jamaica Observer)