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Monica Bodden reporting
Leon Burgess and his girlfriend lived in this small plywood shack off Holy Emmanuel Street. Today it is marked with bullet holes from the shots that tore through last night:

Voice of: Common Law Wife
"What woke up is because I started hearing the sound of bullets passing my ears, so he got up and I ask him what happen and he just nodded his head on the side and watch me like..... And he just laid back down in a position like he was watching the TV and I ask him what it is but he was not answering me and he was getting stiff. I just jumped on top of him telling him to answer me. At that time he was in boxers because he went outside to pee and when he came back inside then the gunshots started to fly. If I had done a sudden jump up, the shots would have caught me because the person peeped in the house, but they were in the yard, so it was somebody who got information that he is here - somebody who had trailed him. The amount of blood I saw and I saw him choking, so I just lean him on the side and I tell him babe, spit it out and he spit out a bullet out of his mouth with an amount of blood and when I turn him off of my pillow the amount of blood that was on my pillow is unbelievable. Like he wanted to talk to me but he couldn't because the blood, like it was overfull, so I just tell my little brother to come and talk to him telling him not to go. I went for help, I was running for help. All I needed was a vehicle to come quick enough because he stayed alive more than half an hour with all those shots that he got."

Indeed, he was executed with malice, but Leon Burgess was not known to be actively involved in gangs, he was a working man - having joined the youth apprenticeship programme two years ago - and securing a full time job at RF&G.

Dianne Finnegan, Director - Youth Apprenticeship Programme
"Leon has been there from 2012. Last year he called me and he said Ma D, he said that he is with the big peoples them right now because they are hiring me fulltime and I am getting ready to sign my agreement with them and I want that you are right here with me while I am doing this because it's because of you I am here."

Director Dianne Finnegan had developed a close bond with him:

Dianne Finnegan, Director - Youth Apprenticeship Programme
"He was appreciated, he was valued and they really liked him there. After the 6 months was up he said to me he said Ma D, I don't know what you could do, but ask them people to have me stay and work. I don't care if they don't pay me; I don't want to go back into that environment. Every single time he says Ma D, cover for me because I don't want to lose my job - He went through it all and he said to me one day, he said a police officer up to my office and he said 'cho, it's here you are working?' he said 'I am proud of you and I will be looking at you making sure that you don't drop' and he felt good about that because the very same officers who would always be targeting him are now motivating him to do the best and to move forward."

But as much as he moved it seems that ultimately he couldn't escape his past

Julia Arana, Mother-in-Law
"One spell my other daughter came and tell me to be careful because they want to kill Leon and your daughter. So I said don't worry about that I will pray because he does not live in the past anymore and like several people meet me and told me to take him out of the yard but I believe in God and I trust God that he could change and he change over the year that he has been with my daughter."

Dianne Finnegan
"He made drastic changes to say I am comfortable jumping on my bike and riding through my community. He just let down his guard and took it granted that he is safe."

Reporter
"Why would anybody want to kill him?"

Julia Arana, Mother-in-Law
"Well everything right now it's about the past. I give people second chance because people tells me things about him and I tell them that is not the person that I know."

Reporter
"What sort of pass did he have?"

Julia Arana, Mother-in-Law
"On the street as usual hanging out, but not to know that I know what he did. It's just hanging out with the wrong crowd."

Reporter
"Why would you think anyone want to kill your common-law-husband?"

Voice of: Common Law Wife
"I don't have any reason to say. I don't know anyone who wants to kill him like that."

Julia Arana, Mother-in-Law
"With me I don't want any retaliation and I want to tell the young people out there to bring back the love because we are killing one another and we will end up with nothing. Then they will say that the aliens are coming in and they will take over when the young people are gone. I am pleading to the young people to bring back the love."

Burgess is the second youth affiliated with the Youth Apprenticeship Programme to be killed in 10 days. The other was Samuel Miguel - whose head was bashed in front of the former Extra House on Cemetery Road.