News

SISTER UNDER THREAT

LINVAL THOMPSON'S SISTER, the only remaining member of a family of four, is now in hiding after receiving death threats, less than two weeks after her brother's murder.

Thompson was murdered while travelling to work in a route taxi on Wednesday, April 13. Thompson who was sitting in the backseat between two passengers was gunned down shortly after 8:00 a.m. at a traffic light at Hope Road at the intersection of Upper Waterloo Road and Trafalgar Road, St. Andrew.

Thompson, who witnessed the murder of his mother and stepfather in 2001, used to live off Red Hills Road but fled the area because of fear for his life. He then moved to Passagefort, Portmore.

Years later, however, Thompson, testified against some of the men involved in the shooting and had helped to put them away. A friend of Thompson says it was some of the others who did not want to meet a similar fate who came back to kill him.

THE STAR understands that since the murder, Thompson's sister and her family have gone into the Witness Protection Programme - the same one that Thompson had refused to go into.

According to a family friend, "After him dead, them call her and say ah she dem a come for next."

The sister was unwilling to talk about the issue to THE STAR.

According to another friend, Thompson refused to be frightened off by the threats he received by the gunmen over the months. "Him just laugh and say them 'fraid ah him." The friend said, on the day of his murder, he contacted his sister to tell her that the men from whom he received the threats were following him.

Otherwise known as "Shelly", because he was often seen doing the 'Shelly Belly dance', Thompson was described by one of his friends with whom he played football, as "someone who would always be there - there was never anything he had that was too good for us."

"It is hard on us. You know when you see someone the Sunday, and then the Wednesday you hear that him dead," Thompson's friend continued.

When asked about the threats that Thompson received, "Is a youth like this, if someone say them ah go lick him with a stone, him a go say, him want to see who a go lick him with a stone."

Thompson, 23, worked as an accounting clerk at First Global Financial services, in New Kingston.

Thompson will be buried on May 7.