Three robbery suspects killed in Mandeville as two men shot near Bellfield school

Two men were hospitalised after masked gunmen opened fire near the entrance of Bellfield High School in Manchester on Sunday. Preliminary reports put the attack at about 5:00 p.m., when assailants ambushed people gathered for a regular Sunday football match, struck two men and fled. One victim was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder. Police said a third man suffered minor bruises as the crowd scrambled for cover.

The shooting comes as Manchester police move against a network accused of robbing bars and targeting poker machines, including suspects linked to criminals in neighbouring parishes. On Saturday, officers fatally shot Lester Morris, Travis Baker and Santana Booth, also known as Chun Chun, on Caledonia Road in Mandeville. Two firearms were reportedly seized.

Police said they were alerted to a robbery spree about 4:00 p.m. and intercepted a vehicle near Horseshoe Curve. A highly placed police source said the occupants opened fire and officers returned fire, sparking a prolonged standoff. Morris and Baker were taken from the vehicle and pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. The clash occurred near where nursing student Danica Punal and Sadiki Henry were gunned down in a taxi last Saturday by a gunman posing as a passenger.

Baker and Morris were well known to police, with prior arrests for praedial larceny and robbery. In February 2024 police called Baker a third-generation thief after he was among three men charged following a high-speed chase in Newport, Manchester, when a ram goat was recovered from a Toyota Axio. His father, Neville Baker, was later held with more than 600 pounds of stolen carrots and Irish potatoes in Kingsland near Mandeville, and was shot dead in his car at the entrance to Hatfield on March 2, 2025. He had previously served prison time for firearm offences.

Police described Morris as a specialist in stealing and dismantling gaming machines. In 2022, St. Elizabeth police said upscale units with touchscreen technology were worth as much as $500,000 each, with older versions fetching up to $300,000. A police source alleged Booth served as lookout, scoping bars before calling in her associates, and said the network spans several parishes and may be tied to a multi-million-dollar robbery near Red Bank and Junction, St. Elizabeth, last month. Police theorised a Toyota Noah that crashed and burned on the Williamsfield highway in the early hours, killing two occupants, was a getaway vehicle used after the June 27 raid. A senior police source said others remain at large and officers will not relent until the network is dismantled.

Separately, People’s National Party President Mark Golding addressed a leaked audio in which two alleged party figures discussed ways to discredit Major General Anthony Anderson as head of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority. The issue led the agenda at Sunday’s National Executive Council meeting. Golding said the party waited for the facts before speaking and that its review found the talks were not in an official party forum, no party officer took part, and the PNP has no official NEC or executive WhatsApp group. “This was a WhatsApp group formed by individuals within the party and the views expressed were their personal views,” he said, adding that the recordings do not represent PNP policy.