On Monday night a 22 year old man was shot while riding his bicycle on West Canal. Around 9:00, 22 year old Otis Gladden of a Racecourse Street address
was riding his bicycle when a light complexion man fired a shot at him. This area has seen chronic gun violence between rival groups – who live just a
few yards from each other. Today, we asked the Southside commander if this indicates a resurgence of that violence:..
Sr. Supt Chester Williams - Commander, Eastern Division Southside
"In terms of the incident with Otis Gladden, it is a situation that the police are still investigating. Like you rightly said, he was walking on the
canal side and he was shot. He has not been able to say to us who shot him. But nonetheless, we have done and again as a part of our strategy; whenever
there is a shooting what we normally do is to move in the area and get the intervention team, the mediation team to talk to people to ensure there is
no retaliation. I must say that since we began this process that everything that we've had, there has been no retaliation because we have been very
effective in moving immediately after a shooting and see how best would could talk to parties to neutralize an possibility of retaliation between the
different groups."
Jules Vasquez
"Is this an indication that again that those tensions may be flaring up?"
Sr. Supt Chester Williams - Commander, Eastern Division Southside
"No, it's not an indication that no tensions are being flared up Jules. Like I said before, it is one incident, it may be an isolated incident. We are
in the area daily and I will tell you that we in the George street area and that canal side area we have adequate number of police officers to police
that area to ensure that; there is resurgence and more so to ensure that no one would want to go into the area to want to go and commit crime."
Reporter
"So you don't expect retaliation?"
Sr. Supt Chester Williams - Commander, Eastern Division Southside
"I'm not saying that we do not expect but we are doing everything we can to prevent a retaliation from occurring."
Gladden was hit in both legs and was taken to the KHMH where he is listed in a stable condition.
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