Returned resident"s shooting a contract killing, say police

BY PAUL HENRY Co-ordinator — Crime/Court Desk henryp@jamaicaobserver.com

Tuesday, January 21, 2014    

THE murder last Friday night of a 75-year-old returned resident in St Elizabeth is believed by the police to be a contract killing.

Robert Campbell was attacked and shot near his two-storey home on Baptist Road in Middle Quarters by a gunman who called out to him before opening fire. Campbell’s household helper, who was travelling with him in his van, wasn’t injured.

A police source told the Jamaica Observer about the suspicion of a hit, while adding that the ‘trigger man’ and two other men had been in the area for two days interacting with residents of the quiet district in west St Elizabeth, before committing the crime.

The men were travelling in a Toyota Camry motor car. It was after the incident that residents started coming forward with the information.

According to Deputy Superintendent Lanford Salmon, Campbell’s murder could have been prevented had residents been more vigilant and reported the presence of the three strange men in the area.

“The citizens of St Elizabeth need to realise that the landscape has changed,” said Campbell, who is head of operations for the parish.

“St Elizabeth people are nice people and welcome [all] in their home, but they should look at strange men in the area as suspects and check them out with the police. We have intelligence that migrant criminals are coming into the parish seeking safe haven. The people are too friendly and need to wise up,” he added.

Campbell’s murder came a week after his wife died of natural causes in hospital. He leaves behind five grandchildren.

Meanwhile, grieving relatives and residents had nothing but kind words about Campbell, who reportedly returned to live in the island in the late 1990s after spending approximately 50 years working in the United States of America.

He’s been described as friendly, kind, helpful and a person who likes to give advice and a listening ear.

His grandson Kemar Campbell told the Observer that these qualities may have led him to stop when flagged down by a stranger around 8:45 on that fateful Friday night.

Speaking of Campbell’s kindness, Kemar said that whenever there was a shortage of water in the area, Campbell would allow people to catch the commodity from his tank, free of charge.

Residents said that on occasion when he was leaving his house in the morning and saw children on the road he would pack them into his van and take them to school.

“I always watch it on TV and my heart would sink,” Campbell’s sister, Gracelin Wilson, said in relation to news reports of murders, “but I never knew it was coming right at our door.”

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Returned resident"s shooting a contract killing, say police

Local animation firm reels in another big contract

ANIMATION studio, GSW has landed a contract that will see the local firm produce 52 episodes for a globally distributed cartoon series.

The company, which will undertake animation and background design under the 13-month contract, aims to increase its compliment of animators from 12 to 75 by next March, when work begins.The name of the cartoon remains undisclosed pending an announcement by overseas partners, but the “international exposure and calibre of the co-production partners will officially put Jamaica on the map”, according to Wayne Sinclair, a director of GSW.GSW, which was launched last September, represents one of few local animation studios had previously secured a contract to animate Disney Junior France kids show Quiz Time for Studio Red Frog in France.Sinclair estimates that there are currently 50 trained animators working in Jamaica, which means that additional staff will mostly have to come through training of new animators that will lead to the doubling of local capacity for creating animation.Currently an army of animators are being trained by Carimac at the Univeristy of West Indies (UWI), where GSW expects to source the bulk of its additional production staff.“We executed a memorandum of understanding with GSW to arrange and to participate with the training of animators with the provision for them to consider hiring them at the completion of the course,” said Hopeton Dunn, Carimac Director and Professor of Communications Policy and Digital Media.The six-month training course began in August at both the Kingston and Montego Bay UWI campuses and has 45 students enrolled, while lecturers were drawn from GSW, Carimac and support from overseas experts.Earlier this year an animation festival entitled Kingstoon helped to galvanise the sector. It was organised by the Government in partnership with the World Bank, the Canadian High Commission, and JAMPRO.The two-day event was designed to provide a platform for showcasing Jamaican and Caribbean talent and identifying key policy decisions needed to support the animation industry in Jamaica.Jampro previously indicated that it views animation as a growth area for the creative industries, which also includes film, photography and music.In 2012 Jampro facilitated expenditure of $1.16 billion for the creative industry sector, up from $313 million in 2011, according to data from the latest Economic and Social Survey published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica. Jamaica’s competitive advantage includes its language, talent pool, and close geographical proximity to Hollywood in the USA.The global animation industry was valued at US$222.8 billion in 2012, with much of the animation-outsourcing jobs going to countries like India, South Korea, and the Philippines, according to a Jampro release.A scene from the Disney Junior France kids show Quiz Time.SINCLAIR… International exposure and calibre of the co-production partners will officially put Jamaica on the map

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Local animation firm reels in another big contract