Slaughter in Anchovy - two killed in separate incidents

No. 67 Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Two men were killed by gunmen on Monday in the usually quiet Anchovy community of South St. James.

    They are, Desmond Gentles - a 45 year-old auto body repairman, and Nester Rutherford - a 28 year­old bus driver of Belmont, also in Anchovy.
    A visit to the community saw both families in mourning as they related the painful saga of how each man died.
    The first incident occurred about 2:10 a.m., in an area known as Train Line. According to relatives, Gentles, who operated a garage at the intersection of Long Lane and the Anchovy main road, had, for some time now, been the prime target of robbers and it was just a week ago that these miscreants invaded Gentles' shop.
    On the fateful morning, the auto body man got a phone call that robbers were breaking into his shop again. Instead of alerting the police, Gentles armed himself with a machete  and headed towards the shop.
    However, he did not reach the shop. He was ambushed by gunmen who shot him four times, killing him on the spot.
    Residents, who heard the explosion, alerted the police. On their arrival, Gentles was seen lying in a ditch
along the train line area.
    Widow, Carol Gentles, informed reporters of the kind of man Gentles was. He is remembered as an honest and kind-hearted man, who was well loved by all his family and his hundreds of customers.
    She further stated that after he received the phone call that the shop was being broken into by the robbers, she was very scared for him to leave the house.
    Before ambushing Gentles, his killers went on a robbery spree in the area and stole several goats from neighbouring premises and robbed the office of a block factory in the area.  
 
                     BELMONT MURDER 
    The second murder occurred about 8:20 p.m., in Belmont. Reports state that Rutherford had just arrived home when he was pounced upon by two men as he alighted from his white Toyota Hiace bus.
    The men pumped several bullets into his body, leaving him to die.
    The police were called and the body was subsequently removed.