Residents described the sound of gunshot and screams from a man who was injured as "hell". A woman who lives close by said the shooting was so intense that she thought her house was being fired upon.

Linton, on whose head a $250,000 bounty had been placed, was named along with five other men in connection with the early-morning horror.

Two of the men were reportedly held hours after the attack that drew condemnation from member of Parliament Joseph Hibbert in whose East Rural St Andrew constituency the mayhem was unleashed.

"It's really sad, especially that a child has been killed. I don't know that anybody can justify that type of behaviour," Hibbert said, while calling on the police to double efforts to apprehend the gunmen.

According to a police report, the incident occurred about 1:30 am when thugs, armed with high-powered weapons and handguns, attacked the hapless victims as they slept in a house in the Alley Four area.

After the killings, the men then firebombed the house, burning the bodies of the deceased persons beyond recognition, according to the police and family members. The five-room wood and concrete house was totally flattened, except for a portion of the concrete section.

The adult victims were identified as 31-year-old Dania Forbes and 49-year-old taxi operator Marnis Hylton.

One man was injured in the incident and hospitalised in serious condition.

Hylton is survived by a teenage daughter and Forbes died leaving a 12-year-old son.

"That brother don't deserve to die like that," said a woman, speaking to no one in particular. "He was a good man."

A grief-stricken relative, who did not wish to be identified for fear of reprisal, described Hylton as a "family man", who was a generous person and a "peacemaker".

Detectives yesterday speculated that reprisal was the motive for the attack that left the entire community in mourning.

Superintendent Derrick 'Cowboy' Knight, who heads the police division in which August Town is situated, told the Observer that the attacks may have been in retaliation to the shooting last week of a man in the area, who succumbed to his injuries on Saturday night. Knight said that the heavily armed men were in search of a man who had several weeks earlier fired upon Linton.

"Again, we are asking the public to assist us in finding 'Dog Paw', said Knight. "What happened [here] is clearly a testimony to his viciousness and callousness and how brazen this man is."

The 24-year-old Linton has been on the police most wanted list since earlier this year. Police say he is wanted for questioning in relation to several shootings and murders within the Tavern and August Town areas. But Linton, in a recent interview with the Observer, professed his innocence and said that he was apprehensive about surrendering to the police because he feared that he would be killed in a similar fashion to his brother who died in jail.

The others named by the police in relation to yesterday morning's grizzly attack are Yanik Lewis, otherwise called 'Slim Shady' of a Jungle 12 address; Micah Allen; 'Nesbeth', of a Tavern Drive address; a man known only as 'Carey', of a Kintyre address; and 'Burger' also of a Kintyre address.

Lewis and another man were held shortly after being named. The other men are being asked to report to the Half-Way-Tree Police Station this morning.