BY SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating two more homicides, a shooting death of a 22-year-old man that occurred near a church late on Monday night and the circumstances surrounding the death of a man who died in hospital on Tuesday after being shot along with three others on New Year’s Eve.

Monday’s killing took place in the Blue Hill Heights area and brought the country’s murder count to five for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

On Tuesday night, police also said that a man who was shot in the area of Sandilands Village Road late on December 31, died in hospital on Tuesday. His death would push the 2016 homicide count to 114, according to The Tribune’s records. Another man who was also shot at the time died on the scene.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean said police have very few details surrounding Monday’s homicide and appealed to the public for assistance.

“Shortly after 9pm, police received information that shots were fired in the Blue Hill Heights area,” ACP Dean said. “When officers arrived on the scene, they discovered the lifeless body of a male lying on the floor in a pool of blood in the rear of the residence near a church. We are still trying to determine what happened that led to the killing and we need anyone who knows anything or may have seen anything to reach out to us.”

It is believed the man was fleeing his assailants when he collapsed. People were practising in the nearby Trinity Assembly City of Praise off Tonique Williams Darling Highway when they heard gunshots.

Police have not identified Monday’s victim but The Tribune understands he is 22-year-old Carlos Adderley.

The murder came days after a man was brutally beaten to death with a hammer. That killing took place shortly before 10pm on Friday near Golden Isles Road.

Police said they received information that two men were fighting off Carmichael Road. When officers arrived at the scene they found the lifeless body of a man with blunt injuries to the head. The victim was pronounced dead on the scene.

According the preliminary reports, the victim was involved in an argument with another man at the back of his residence which led to him being struck multiple times with a blunt object, believed to be a hammer.

A short while after the incident, police said an adult male turned himself in and is being questioned in connection with this killing.

Police have not identified the victim, but The Tribune understands he is Nado Joseph.

Anyone with information on any of these incidents is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.