Old Harbour Bay man shot dead on his way to work

The homicide occurred about 6:14 am along Terminal Road, Old Harbour Bay.

Dead is 34-year-old Owen Creary, a labourer of McCloud Close also known as Thirteen Street in the Old Harbour South community.

Information is that Creary, alias ‘Kelly’, was riding a bicycle along the road on his way to a nearby construction site when he was attacked and fired upon. He was shot multiple times in the upper torso.

He died on the spot.

A police unit later arrived at the scene where the body was taken to the hospital and formally pronounced dead.

The killing of Creary is the second murder committed in Old Harbour Bay in the last seven days.

Preliminary investigation by the police is that while both incidents are not connected, Creary’s death ostensibly stems from a long-standing feud dating back to 2017 between rival posse of the Thirteen Street gang of which according to the police Creary is alleged to be the de facto leader and the Plucco Brains gang.

A series of gang warfare broke out between both gangs during that period, say investigators, which saw Creary leaving the area to “cool off”. Upon his return to the community Creary became intimately involved with a female at lower Terminal road where men loyal to him reside but in conflict with gangsters from upper Terminal road.

To the surprise of those with close knowledge of the feud Creary was killed in the zone of his enemies, an enclave called ‘Capture Land’ along upper Terminal road.

At present the area is said to be calm but tense, as detectives believe Creary’s death could reignite a new round of warfare between the rival gangs.

It is understood that the area will be saturated with members of the security forces to mitigate any flare up in violence, as investigators say both gangs are heavily armed and possess the manpower to carry out reprisal attacks.