Bellefield shooting injures two as Manchester police target bar robbery network

Two men were hospitalised on Sunday after gunmen opened fire near the entrance to Bellefield High School in Manchester, where a crowd had gathered for a regular Sunday football match.

Preliminary reports indicate the attack occurred around 5:00 p.m., when masked gunmen ambushed the group before fleeing. One victim was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder. A third man sustained minor bruises while seeking cover after shots rang out.

The incident unfolded as police stepped up operations against a criminal network linked to bar robberies across Manchester, particularly targeting poker gaming machines. That push followed a Saturday shootout on Caledonia Road in Mandeville in which three suspects — Lester Morris, Travis Baker, and Satania Booth, alias "Chun Chun" — were fatally shot by officers.

Police said they were alerted around 4:00 p.m. to a robbery spree and later intercepted a vehicle near Horseshoe Curve. Occupants of the vehicle reportedly fired at officers, who returned gunfire, triggering a prolonged standoff. Morris and Baker were removed from the vehicle and taken to hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival. Two firearms were seized.

A police source said the group had been under surveillance based on intelligence. Stolen items, including parts from poker boxes, were recovered at three premises two Fridays earlier and tied to the three deceased suspects. Police described Booth as a lookout who would enter bars, scout locations, and alert accomplices.

The confrontation occurred near the scene of a double murder in which nursing student Den Punol and Sadifa Henry were killed in a taxi by a gunman posing as a passenger. Morris and Baker were known to police and had prior arrests for offences including praedial larceny and robbery.

In February 2024, Travis Baker was among three men charged after a high-speed chase from Newport to Manchester; police recovered a ram goat from the trunk of a Toyota Axio he was travelling in. A week later, his father Neville Baker was detained with two others in Kingsland near Mandeville with more than 600 pounds of stolen carrots and Irish potatoes. Neville Baker, who had served time for firearm offences, was shot dead on March 2, 2025 at the entrance to the Hatfield community in Manchester.

Police described Morris as a specialist in robbing and dismantling poker gaming machines. In 2022, officers in neighbouring St. Elizabeth said upscale touchscreen machines could fetch up to $500,000, with older models selling for up to $300,000. A senior police source said the network spans multiple parishes and may be linked to a multi-million-dollar robbery at an establishment near Junction, St. Elizabeth, on June 27. Two associates died when a Toyota vehicle believed to have been used as a getaway car crashed and burst into flames on the Williamsfield Highway while fleeing highway patrol officers.

"There are others of them out there and we will not relent until the criminal network is dismantled," a senior police source said.

Separately, the People's National Party addressed a leaked audio recording in which voices of two alleged party officials could be heard discussing ways to discredit Major General Anthony Anderson as head of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority. The issue topped the agenda at Sunday's National Executive Council meeting, though a scheduled opposition briefing did not proceed.

In a video released to media, PNP President Mark Golding said the party had withheld public comment until its review was complete. "The conversations in which those leaked recordings took place did not happen in any official party forum," he said. He added that no party officer participated, the PNP has no official NEC or executive WhatsApp group, and the views expressed were personal views of individuals. "Those recordings do not represent the official recordings of the PNP or any policy of the PNP," Golding said.