IT was a chilling funeral service yesterday for Stacy-Ann Clarke, the 10-year-old who died of injuries she received last month when gunmen traded bullets in the depressed Seaview Gardens Kingston community she called home.

More than 400 residents of the community turned out to pay their final respects to the youngster, who died after doctors fought to save her at the University Hospital of the West Indies. A single bullet entered her neck and severed her spinal cord, rendering her brain dead and sending her into a coma days after the shooting.

Students gather to photograph the body of 10-year-old Stacy-Ann Clarke who was shot and killed in Seaview Gardens. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

Yesterday, 50-year-old Leon Clarke sobbed uncontrollably for his only child, even as he tried to comfort her mother, Maxine Clarke. Despite being consoled by grieving relatives, tears ran freely down their cheeks as their daughter's casket was wheeled into the church.

"Stacy baby, baby. Lord mi baby gone," Maxine wept, as her estranged husband held her trembling body.

"Mi baby gone leave we. Stacy, you gone leave wi baby? You really gone?" the woman bellowed, as two female relatives wiped tears from her face and ushered her into a room at the side of the church.

A despondent Leon Clarke is comforted by friend Ruby 'Tina' Cousins at the funeral service for his daughter Stacy-Ann who was shot and killed in Seaview Gardens last month. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

Across town, a number of other families like the Clarkes were preparing to bury their loved ones whose lives were brutally snuffed out, as the country's murder rate continues to climb daily. Up to April there were 489 murders. Police statistics also showed that 10 women and seven children were murdered since January.

Not even the police are safe from the gunmen's murderous bullets. The families of police constables Cornel Grant and Delano Lawrence, who were shot and killed by gunmen in Federal Gardens, Kingston, last Friday are today living that reality.

Even as Maxine and Leon were saying their final goodbyes yesterday to young Stacy-Ann in church, the constables' families were still trying to come to terms with the deaths of their loved ones.

Lawrence and Grant's deaths bring to five, the number of police men murdered since the start of the year.

Yesterday, acting Prime Minister Dr Ken Baugh, Minister of National Security Colonel Trevor MacMillan and minister in charge of Women's and Gender Affairs, Olivia Grange visited the constables' families.

During a tearful visit with Lawrence's widow, Claudia and eight-year-old son, D'Jhevani, in Harbour View, the acting prime minister said the killings were devastating, and extended condolences on behalf of the government.

He said Prime Minister Bruce Golding would make personal contact with the families once he returns to Jamaica from England later yesterday evening.

Golding learnt of the shooting deaths of the two policemen in Kingston on Friday as he stood at the podium responding to specific issues raised by members of the audience at the Marcus Garvey Centre in Nottingham. The prime minister, who was on the final leg of his four-city tour of the United Kingdom (UK), had earlier, in a spirited two-hour-long presentation, outlined for the Jamaicans overseas the Government's policies to grow the economy, fight crime and improve the education system.

After learning about the deaths, the prime minister, "with a pained expression on his face, stridently reinforced his resolve to tame Jamaica's crime monster," according to a release issued by the Communications Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) last week. "He recommitted his full support to the Commissioner of Police, and promised to work ceaselessly to offer Jamaicans a society in which they can live without fear," the statement said.

The new security minister, during his visit with the cops' families yesterday, said what he found encouraging was the response of the residents of the community where the policemen were slain. They mounted a demonstration to register their disgust over the killings.

Meanwhile, Anthony Hylton, member of parliament for St Andrew Western, who expressed condolences yesterday at Stacy-Ann's funeral, called for peace in the community, while condemning the loss of the innocent child.

"Normally around this time of year we would be meeting to celebrate a graduation or some school ceremony, but not this year. This year we come to the funeral of a very promising student who will not be present at a graduation or be promoted to the next grade. An innocent child, who was carelessly murdered by gunmen," he said.

He called for residents to help the police in tackling the recent surge in shootings in the community which had been relatively peaceful for months.

"I am upset and angry about this killing. But it begs the question - are we doing enough as a community? Are we doing enough for the loss of Stacy-Ann and her classmates, who wonder if they will be next? I have to wonder if the gunmen are being cuddled, hidden and disguised," Hylton said.

Elaine Roulston, regional director at the Ministry of Education, also called for an end to the slaying of innocent children, saying that with each murder of a child, violence was eating away at the country's future.

Her sentiments were echoed throughout the congregation as the residents applauded in agreement during her presentation.