Jamaican Observer 4/14/05



IN what police believe to be a professional hit, Linval Thompson, an accounting clerk at First Global Financial Services in New Kingston was yesterday morning shot dead while he sat between two female passengers in the back seat of a taxi in rush hour traffic.


Thompson. had testified at murder trial

Thompson, who recently testified in a murder trial which led to the conviction of four men charged with the shooting deaths of his mother and stepfather three years ago at 100 Lane in Kingston, was on his way to work when he was slain.

He was also scheduled to attend an identification parade of a man picked up Tuesday in connection with the 100 Lane massacre of seven persons.

Police said yesterday that neither the driver, another passenger in the front seat, nor the two female passengers were injured by the shots fired by the gunman through the rear windscreen of the taxi at about 8:15 at the busy Trafalgar/Hope roads intersection.

Police theorise that Thompson, 23, was trailed from his home in Bridgeport, St Catherine, into Half-Way-Tree, where he boarded the taxi to get to work in New Kingston.


According to an eyewitness, two men on a Honda F3 motorcycle rode up to the Nissan taxi in which Thompson was travelling and opened fire on him.

"The bike stop about one car down from the taxi and then a guy in a yellow plaid shirt and a khaki pants jumped off and ran up to the taxi in the filter lane. I heard about five shots and then him jump back on the bike and them drive off," said the eyewitness.

Thompson was taken to Andrew's Memorial Hospital, about 50 metres away, where he was pronounced dead.


Linval Thompson's co-workers mourn his murder yesterday. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

"When I realised that one of the passengers get shot, I pulled over on the road," said the nervous taxi driver who asked not to be named. "The other three passengers that I had taken up in Half-Way-Tree got traumatised and ran out of the car. The two women that were sitting beside him were almost uncontrollable. Mi nuh know where them gone."

Thompson, the taxi driver said, "was a regular passenger".
Scores of people gathered at the hospital on hearing about the deadly morning attack.

"Just look at how neatly the holes were made in the back of the car windshield. It must be a superb marksman that do it," said another cab driver.

Mourning relatives and co-workers huddled in groups outside the hospital as they tried to come to grips with Thompson's slaying.

"He was very bubbly and ambitious," said one of the slain man's co-workers. "He started out as a bearer in 2001 and worked his way up. Now he is an audit clerk and he was doing his 'A' levels (exams)," she added.

"He was our champion athlete. He used to co-ordinate our sports day and he participated in everything. He was the champion athlete for GraceKennedy for two years in a row.
He even had a football match today (yesterday). His football gears and his school books are still in the car," said another co-worker. Neither wanted to give their names.

Marcia Henry, assistant vice-president for human resources at First Global, told the Observer that Thompson was a great team player who got along well with everyone.

"It has been very traumatic for the staff. There has been a lot of crying and work has literally slowed," Henry said. She said a counsellor was called in to speak to staff at the company's St Lucia Crescent office.

Two children were among the seven shot dead when heavily armed men attacked 100 Lane - a sprawling inner-city community located off the busy Red Hills Road - and sprayed bullets in the houses in the early morning of January 3, 2002.

The group of murderers, estimated to be about 50, also torched two houses in the attack which is believed to have been in reprisal for a New Year's Eve military-style assault on nearby Park Lane by gunmen dressed in police-type blue denim. One man was killed and another injured in that attack.

The murderers also turned their guns on goats which were in one of the yards during the attack on 100 Lane.

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Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured, every step of the way....

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world." - Ghandi

What a loss!! Such is the price of "informing"!!!

__________________
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured, every step of the way....

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world." - Ghandi

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Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured, every step of the way....

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world." - Ghandi

see it deh!.......chrrrps....bwoy!.....


but him name sound so familiar to mi!

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people are so cold hearted these days, no feelings or consideration.

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One True Original Me Only one year older

You're not the only one. As soon as I read his name, a bell went off in my head. It's the whole name that sounds so damn familiar............

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Gotta love Home Theater......

Well, maybe not your neighbors....

So sad in deed... TOWN A RUN RED...fi no reason.

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this is terrible its so sad i'm lost for words ....

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wake up with a smile to make your day end with a smile.

These people murdered his family - he is not an informer - he is looking for justice the same way you or I would!!

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I thought the same thing then I realised why - there is a singer/producer called Linval Thompson, from back in the 80's

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Yes, I know people murdered his family and I'm not labeling him an "informer" in a negative way...that is how the perpetrators are seeing him....

__________________
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured, every step of the way....

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world." - Ghandi