MANCHESTER, JAMAICA – A quiet, early Saturday morning in the rural Farm district of south Manchester was shattered by violence, when four masked, heavily armed gunmen forced their way into a local home and killed a married couple who operated a nearby bar. The victims have been publicly identified by family members as 42-year-old Kaydene Isaacs and 47-year-old Rohan Bernard, who was widely known to locals by his nickname “Rocky”.
According to initial findings from the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the incident unfolded shortly after 2:00 a.m. The assailants, armed with one rifle and multiple semi-automatic handguns, first cut through and breached an external security grille to gain entry to the residential property. Upon entering, they immediately confronted a woman who was in another section of the home with her two young children, demanding that she hand over all cash and high-value valuables she had in the house.
After robbing the woman, the gunmen moved toward the back bedroom of the property, where Isaacs and Bernard had been sleeping. Trapped and with no route to escape, the couple quickly barricaded the bedroom door to block the attackers from entering. The gunmen then ordered the confronted woman and her two children to leave the property immediately before turning their full attention to the barricaded bedroom.
Minutes later, neighbors who had woken to the commotion reported hearing multiple loud gunshots ring out from inside the home. When police arrived at the scene minutes after receiving emergency calls, they forced entry into the bedroom and found Isaacs and Bernard with multiple critical gunshot wounds. Both were pronounced dead at the scene, with no chance for emergency medical intervention.
For several hours following the shooting, local detectives and crime scene investigators worked to collect ballistic evidence and document the attack, as dozens of shocked onlookers – including heartbroken relatives and friends of the couple – gathered outside the property’s perimeter. Once the forensic processing was complete, the victims’ bodies were transported to the nearby parish morgue for official autopsy examinations to determine exact cause of death.
Kady-Ann Smith, cousin of Kaydene Isaacs, spoke to reporters outside the crime scene, remembering the pair as quiet, hardworking community members who kept to themselves and focused on running their small bar business. “She [Isaacs] was a calm person… She was always working. Bernard would just go to the bar and come straight home after. These were people who just worked hard and lived their lives, they never bothered anyone,” Smith said. As of press time, Jamaica Constabulary Force detectives have not announced any arrests in connection with the double homicide, and are appealing to anyone with information about the attack or the identities of the gunmen to contact local police anonymously.