GEORGES PLAIN, Westmoreland - Residents of this rural district were still in shock yesterday as they mourned for an elderly businessman and one of his customers, who were brutally murdered by gunmen during a robbery here Wednesday night.

Another man was injured in the shooting.
The 73-year-old businessman, Alvin Lettman, better known in the district as 'Cooker', and one of his customers, 56-year-old tractor driver Robert Guthrie, were at Lettman's store when they were shot during a hold-up.

Police spokesman Corporal Thomozene Foster said while Lettman, Gutherie and the other man were in the store, two men entered, one of whom made an order for goods. While being served, the police spokesman said the man and his crony brandished guns and demanded money from the proprietor and his two customers.

The armed men, after robbing the three of an undisclosed sum of money and the proprietor of several pre-paid cellular phone cards, opened fire on the three then fled the scene in a car that was waiting for them outside the store.

The businessman's son, Elvis Lettman, a police sergeant stationed in Moneague, St Ann, said his dad's murder was the materialisation of his worst fear.

"Due to the rampant murders going around in the island it was my worst fear. that they would attack him because I know he doesn't have a gun," the distraught son said. "I had spoken to my seniors and told them that I wanted a transfer to come nearer to my mother and father."

Meanwhile, a s****re-looking Ian Hayles, MP for the Opposition People's National Party, who had lived near to the businessman during his childhood days, said "Mr Lettman practically grew me up".

"I have never made any serious decision in my life without consulting him, and that is the kind of Jamaican he is," added Hayles. "He is a good, decent, honest man and a caring Jamaican who always ensures that if you come to his business place and did not have sufficient funds you would never leave without the goods."

Wednesday's murders followed closely on another double killing in the parish last week when rampaging gunmen went on a robbery and shooting spree in the Top Road section of Little London. In that attack, 41-year-old businessman Stephen Thompson and 40-year-old labourer, Burton Little were killed.