MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Even as police here have launched a manhunt for a gunman who posed as a passenger in a taxi before disembarking the vehicle and killing two passengers on Saturday, detectives are struggling to make sense of the incident as up to press time they had not determined a motive for the attack.

“It is senseless…He paid his fare and got his change and the vehicle drove off and he just fired shots on it. The motive is not clear, because why would you shoot up a vehicle with seven people,” a senior police source told the Jamaica Observer on Sunday.

Police identified those killed as Deneekia Pounall, 24, a nursing student at Knox Community College, a resident of Heartease in the parish, and her neighbour 21-year-old Sadefa Henry.