Imani Green Jamaica killing: Eight people arrested

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Media caption,

Deputy Supt Steve Brown: Imani Green "was not the intended target"

Eight people have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a British girl in Jamaica.

Imani Green from Balham, south London, was inside her cousin's shop in the north coast town of Duncans on Friday when a man entered the store and an argument broke out.

Police said the man opened fire. Imani died and three relatives were injured.

Deputy Supt Steve Brown, from Jamaica's police force, said the arrested people were being questioned.

"We have taken people into custody as we search for a motive for the attack," he told BBC Breakfast

"We've heard about gang warfare but we find it a bit difficult to believe because where the incident took place it is a sleepy community, nothing happens there, it's an isolated incident.

"But it could be linked to a number of things and we are looking at all possibilities and following all the leads that we are getting.

"We are confident we will make a breakthrough very, very soon."

'Happy child'

He said the injuries of the three others shot, believed to be two women and a man, were not considered life-threatening.

Media caption,

British High Commissioner to Jamaica Howard Drake: "Our concern is the wellbeing of the family"

Imani, who was a pupil at Fircroft Primary School in Tooting, suffered from sickle cell anaemia and had been given permission by the school for her extended trip to Jamaica.

Head teacher Anne Wilson said: "Imani was a happy, playful child who was popular with staff and pupils alike."

Imani, her mother and her sister had been staying with relatives in Duncans.

The family arrived on the island on 27 December and were thought to have planned to return to the UK at the end of the month.

Her grandmother Sandra Fisher said she found Imani lying in a "pool of blood".

'Mercilessly slaughtered'

After the shooting, Imani's sister Janella Parmer said: "We heard gunshots. We ran outside and shouted 'Imani, Imani, Imani'.

"I picked her up off the ground and realised she was still breathing.

"I flagged down a car and they drove us to hospital."

Imani is understood to have been hit twice, once in the head.

On Sunday, the high command of Jamaica's police force said Imani was "mercilessly slaughtered in front of family members in a hail of bullets as gangsters sought to exact revenge on their rivals".

The island's government said police were conducting an "extensive investigation into the matter and will expend every effort to ensure that the perpetrator is apprehended and brought to justice".