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Shooting Between Warring Gangs Cause Chaos In City
posted (August 3, 2012)
A section of the city was whipped up by exchanges of gunfire between rival gangs today.

The hostilities were between rival gangs Backatown and Ghostown - who are in the same neighborhood around Vernon Street. So the firing was done at close range and in plain view - and in quick succession, which caused chaos in the streets - as police swarmed the area.

But it all started when they shot up a woman's home - and she spoke to Monica Bodden:...

Therese Stevens - House Owner
"I went to the store to buy for my daughter and coming back home I saw the police mobile coming fast through here. I heard the vehicle but I thought it was the ambulance. When I came out of the yard I saw the police vehicle coming, so I thought that the boy come back like what he say."

Monica Bodden reporting
It was in front of this housing complex in the back-a-town area that a gunman opened fire … but lucky enough, no one was caught in the hail of bullets.

The shooting happened around 10 this morning. According to residence, the gunman - whom they say they clearly identified, stood across the canal on Sittee Street and began to open fire at the house.

Therese Stevens - one of the residents inside the yard, showed us her bullet riddled walls.

Therese Stevens - House Owner
"When I come back my family told me that the bullets went into your house. Then when I came up I saw it. I call the police but none of them appear to me. Until just now when another shooting happen the police came and while I was talking to them out there my sister came and hand them the bullet. That was it, they still haven't come yet. You see my wall. I am not safe in my house. I don't even know those young boys. I lost a son already on his job and I am not going through this again."

Stevens told us the shooter was in the neighborhood making threats just minutes before her family residence was shot up.

Therese Stevens - House Owner
"I wish they pick him up so I can go to him myself because I am not afraid to go to him. I don't have any target here and I am not a target. This is foolishness; there is a bullet in my bed. I have my grandchildren up here. If I was on the verandah I could have die right there washing dishes because that is where I wash up. Still no police came and assist me and do anything for me. So I would really want them to pick him up so I can deal with him through the law the hard way."

And for this mother who had just lost a son to gun violence only last year, she is scared for her own safety.

Monica Bodden
"Are you worried about your own safety?"

Therese Stevens - House Owner
"Yes I am. I am very worried about my safety because I already lost a son."

Monica Bodden
"You think if you were on the bed laying down you would be dead?"

Therese Stevens - House Owner
"I would have surely died if I was washing dishes. If I didn't go and buy for my daughter I would had died because I am a person who doesn't like dirty dishes, so I would be right there on the verandah washing dishes. I already had them setup but because I went to buy, you understand. I really feared for my life, this is where I live. Where else would I go?"

Monica Bodden
"The gunman just came outside and open fire?"

Therese Stevens - House Owner
"Yes he just opens fire from across the canal. I don't want they threaten me if they see me on news because I do not bother no one because then the thing will really get nasty because I already lost a son and I will not get any satisfaction and for bullet passing through my house for nothing, no, no, I am not happy."

"Right now I don't have to fear my life to go on the streets because hey that is in my house. "

And only minutes after the shooting, another gunman fired shots on at the corner of Vernon and Sarstoon Street at the house of Osmond Mitchell a.k.a. Minky. No one was injured but police detained Brandon Smith a.k.a. Battery - who is believed to have been the gunman along with another who police is still looking for.

There was a lot of commotion in the area generally as police picked up a number of other persons.

Smith is currently detained pending charges.

According to latest repots they have caught the man who was believed to have been with him when shots were fired; he is Wilbur Gentle. Police believe the shooting may have been retaliation to the earlier shooting that took place in the back-a-town area.

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