A British man who had been involved in a ‘bitter’ family feud over properties left to him by his late mother has been shot dead in Jamaica, local media has said.
Michael Brown, 48, was shot and killed in his bed while visiting relatives in Mike Town, Manchester early Thursday morning.
Police reports said Brown was in an unfinished section of a house in the community and was pounced upon by gunmen at approximately 12.20am Thursday.
His death brings the number of Britons killed on the Caribbean isle this year to two.
Michael Brown (pictured in an image shared by local press in Jamaica), 48, was shot and killed while visiting relatives in Mike Town on the outskirts of Mandeville in Manchester early Thursday morning
Brown, also known as ‘Jimmy’, was in a bedroom of an unfinished house he was constructing when he sustained gunshot wounds to his upper body in the attack. He was rushed to the Mandeville Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Citing ‘community sources’, Jamaican radio station Nationwide 90FM said Brown had been involved in a ‘bitter’ family feud over several properties his recently deceased mother had left to him in her will in the island nation.
The station reported the dispute escalated on Wednesday between Brown and his relatives, and a heated argument took place.
Police have opened an investigation into the shooting and are collecting statements.
Detectives are now probing whether Brown was killed in connection to the feud, according to local reports.
Speaking to the Jamaica Observer, Brown was in bed when he was shot, just four days after he laid his 74-year-old mother to rest.
Head of the Manchester police Superintendent Shane McCalla told the local newspaper that the police had previously intervened in the family dispute, which is reported to have been going on since 2015.
Local television reports showed this picture, said to be of Mr Brown. Police reports said Mr Brown, also known as ‘Jimmy’, went to an unfinished section of his house in the community and was pounced upon by gunmen at approximately 12.20am on Thursday
‘Up to as recent as last night [January 18], the police had to intervene in a domestic dispute between [relatives]. All the necessary actions were taken, persons were warned,’ McCalla said. She told reporters the dispute involved five houses.
‘The dispute stems as far back as 2015 and it is various properties, not only located [in Mike Town], but in other areas of Manchester, about five houses in total,’ she said.
Police sources said two of Brown’s relatives had been taken into custody, the Observer reported, and that they were persons of interest.
McCalla told the paper that officer questioned the relatives ‘for hours’.
Reporters from the Observer visited the house, and said they found grief-stricken relatives, who shed some light on the dispute.
One said Brown’s late mother suffered because of the dispute, claiming that even she was attacked at one point and chased from her house in the nude.
‘This is a despicable crime and we are looking at all lines on inquiries. This man was from England and came over to look after his new house which he was building and to visit family,’ a police spokesman said.
‘From all accounts, he was a hard-working man. We intend to bring to justice those responsible.’ they added: ‘We will catch those responsible.’
An FCDO spokesperson said: ‘We are in contact with the local authorities following the death of a British-Jamaican man in Jamaica,’ adding the Foreign Office had not been approached for consular assistance.
Brown is the second Brit to be shot dead in Jamaica this year after Sean Patterson, 33, a personal trainer from Shepherd’s Bush, West London, was found with gunshot wounds to his upper body and head in St James, earlier in January.
Brown is the second Brit to be shot dead in Jamaica this year after Sean Patterson (pictured), 33, a personal trainer from Shepherd’s Bush, West London, was found with gunshot wounds to his upper body and head in St James , earlier in January
Patterson, a personal trainer, was shot and killed outside of the guesthouse where he was staying, pictured, in Jamaica. Witnesses have said they heard ‘explosions’
Speaking at the time, Jamaica Constabulary’s deputy commissioner Fitz Bailey called it ‘a contract killing that emanated from Britain’.
In a video statement, Bailey went on to say Patterson had arrived in Jamaica on 29 December with another man who was also from London. The pair had spent several days at an apartment before checking into the villa in Bogue Hill on New Year’s Day.
Later that day, Mr. Patterson, and the man staying with him, met a third person from Kingston, and all three of them stayed at the guest house in separate rooms.
It was around noon the following day that Mr. Patterson and the Jamaican man went to the villa’s pool deck, and a ‘lone man dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt’ was seen firing shots, Mr. Bailey said.
