Empty Five Miles greets pastors one week after deadly firefight

A ghost town would be an appropriate description of Five Miles, in Mount Morland, Sligoville, St Catherine on Thursday, almost one week after two members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and three alleged gunmen were killed during a firefight. With no residents in sight, a mission by pastors of the 10,000 Men and Families Movement and the Spanish Town Minister’s Fraternal fell flat as their hops of meeting and praying with people who were affected emotionally by the traumatic event at a house in the community fizzled. That did not stop Bishop Rowan Edwards, founder of the 10,000 Men and Families Movement, and Pastor Dalbert Simmonds, chairman of the Spanish Town Ministers’ Fraternal from offering up prayers. Members of a Christian team looking at bullet holes in the house at Five Miles, St Catherine, which was the scene of a deadly firefight last Friday.

They said this was in the hope of blessing the space so that nothing similar to what unfolded last week happens again at the location or in the community. They also prayed for God to cover and protect the police as they go about serving, protecting, and reassuring Jamaicans. “I’m so sorry to know that this is happening in my country, at this juncture, when crime and violence has taken a nosedive. It is frightening to know that this incident happened in this peaceful community. I’m very saddened to know that these two policemen were killed,” said Edwards. “I do extend our condolence to the family members of these two policemen but I need some questions to be answered. Couldn’t the tactical team from the JCF organise a better approach? What I have noticed overseas, when there’s gunmen at one location, the approach is different,” Edwards said as he expressed hope that this incident will cause the JCF to bring more…