Police are shooting down an online news report suggesting that an Ocho Rios community is cowering from fear of a violent gang.Head of St Ann police SSP Wayne Cameron says the report carried in Loop News was “largely erroneous”.The report said people from the socially depressed, dense community of Mansfield Heights, also called Falklands near Ocho Rios had reached out to the media house for help. It said they were afraid because of violence said to be carried out by a gang called Mini Bank gang.The St Ann police head denied that residents, including police were leaving the area and that police were afraid. He also denied a claim in the Loop report that other communities including Parry Town and Breadnut Hill were also gripped by fear.The report named several men who they said were part of a gang terrorizing the area. But SSP said he had already named Devroy Vernon, alias Peboo as a person of interest in the latest murder in Falkland and that Peboo was wanted in connection with the earlier murder in the community in which Brian Henry was killed on Sunday, June 26.
In addition he named two of those listed by the media entity as being persons of interest in the murder of June 26. They are Junior Pinnock o/c John Crow and Sheldon White o/c Smurf.Mr Cameron said as far as he was aware, the only persons who had left the community were relatives of the deceased Brian Henry. He said after a risk assessment by the police the family members had been advised that it would be very risky for them to remain in Falklands and they had moved out.The senior superintendent said there had been two murders in Falklands and not “approximately three” as had been stated by Loop. He said there were two people wounded and not 12 in the shooting incidents. “We have arranged a highly publicized meeting in Falklands for next week Monday and we have been talking to the people,” said SSP Cameron “We are maintaining patrols and even foot patrols at times, and some days we increase the numbers of men on the ground. We are working with the community.”He said the violent criminal activities had not spread to any other community.
