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Cradled in bed, nursing four gunshot wounds which almost claimed her life, a Kingston woman is grieving the death of a relative who was shot and killed in a separate incident. The shootings took place only an hour apart.

The woman, who THE STAR gives the name Cindy*, was shot and injured on January 31, around 9 a.m., in a drive-by incident. An hour later, her close blood relative, apparently dazed by the incident, made the mistake of entering a 'no go' area and was murdered.

"Me a wonder what I could have done different on that day to change what happened," the teary-eyed woman told THE STAR yesterday.

The eventful day saw Cindy, a 30-year-old mother of two, getting out of bed early to conduct business. She had a cake sale the night before and woke up early to return unsold liquors that she had taken on consignment.

"While there, me sit down a talk to some guys on the corner and a deal with the man who I took the liquor from and was ready to pay him. By the time me dip my hand in my bag to take out the money, me hear gun shots, and by the time me turn round to run, a table trip me, but me did get shot already," she said.

Cindy was rushed to hospital for treatment having sustained four gunshot wounds to both breasts, one of her legs and a thigh. The bullets did not hit any organs or major blood vessel.

Following the alarming news, her relative left home in a rage to deliver the news to friends on a neighbouring street. That area is forbidden for persons like Cindy as factions there are at war with thugs in her section of the community. Cindy's relative did not make it out alive. She recalls being asked by a doctor at the hospital if she was aware that her relative was there.

It is heartless

"I said 'yeah', because I was expecting her to come and visit me. It turns out that she was in theatre because she got shot," Cindy said as tears welled up in her eyes. She theorised that her relative ended up on the wrong road because she was in shock.

"It is heartless to see someone weeping for a relative and kill her like that. It's better if them did beat her up and tell her not to come back," she said.

A total 146 persons were murdered in Jamaica between January 1 and February 5. Cindy's relative was among 135 killed in January alone. She is among 134 shooting victims since the start of the year. Cindy feels that her relative's death was in reprisal to an incident last year. Her plea is for the bloodletting to cease and a peace treaty established between rival areas.

"The violence needs to stop because innocent people a lose them life and the worse thing is that everybody were friends," she said. "I don't know what started the violence. It has been going for years now, but my cry is for us to live as one."

*Name changed to protect identity.