Last week, when he spoke to 7NEWS via telephone, Leonard 'Ghost' Meyers told us that James Young had put a $20,000 hit on his life and the lives of other key players from the George Street crew. Meyers said he was shot and 14-year-old Randy Conorquie was killed as Kenneth 'Big Tom' Flowers tried to execute that hit. And according to 'Ghost' Meyers, it's all because Young, he claims, is battling to control turf on the streets, including turf that George Street controls.

On Saturday - that war between George Street and Young's backatwon crew flared up again, this time more violently than ever before. Police say that one of the George Street dons Brian Brown went after James Young himself. The shooting happened on Saturday afternoon in the quiet of the Belama Area. At 2:40, James Young and Big Tom were in a Prado in front of Galaxy Store at the corner of Albert Hoy And Juliet Soberanis Streets when Brian Brown accompanied by Alpheus Smith pulled up in a maroon colored Oldsmobile sedan with taxi license plates.

Allegedly, Brown and young were talking when Smith opened fire. Young was shot in the lower back while Flowers was hit to the back, both arms and both legs. Both are expected to recover and should be released from the hospital shortly. But while they heal, the wounds on the streets are hemorrhaging, and today the man who has to stop the retaliatory shootings, Superintendent Chester Williams discussed the ongoing violence, and what police are doing.

Supt. Chester Williams, C.I.B. - Commander
"We have been monitoring both groups, the George Street and the Back-a-town group. They do have a rivalry between both groups and it is a situation that the police have been monitoring. We have done a lot of intervention in order to have the problems between both groups resolved."

Jules Vasquez,
Do you expect any retaliation as a consequence of the James Young/Big Tom shooting?

Supt. Chester Williams,
"Well as police officers we have to remain objective and we will have to expect the unexpected and it is our duty to ensure that we do our utmost best to prevent any sort of retaliation."

Jules Vasquez,
Do you know who the principal players are? Are you monitoring them?

Supt. Chester Williams,
"Yes we are doing something, we are monitoring the people who are involved. We have been conducting sporadic operations or surgical strike operations at their home and we're trying to let them get the message."

Jules Vasquez,
Are you all doing anything that I can say to my viewers that the police are stressing and containing the principals in this rivalry? It can't be more than thirty people.

Supt. Chester Williams,
"I will not comment on that at this time."

Jules Vasquez,
You understand how it is an issue of public concern, public safety, they've been murders on the street.

Supt. Chester Williams,
"Like I said Jules, we are doing our utmost best to try and address the situation."

Jules Vasquez,
One has the sense sir that there is an escalating rivalry with the same principals involved, we keep hearing the same names over and over; the guys from George Street and the guys from James Young. Why is it that the department is unable to identify and contain these people and suppress these out breaks of violence?

Supt. Chester Williams,
"I will not agree with you Jules the Department, like I mentioned before, we have been doing a lot. We have identified these people, almost every single member we have identified, but some of the incidents, or majority of these incidents, are isolated cases. It is not something that you can say was planned over a period of time. These people go around, either in tinted vehicles or on bicycles, and they go and spot for their prey. When their prey is sighted, they come back to do whatever they have to do. So it is not something that is planned, that the police could say gather intelligence. In my many cases we do get that intelligence on them. Going back to that incident with Big Tom and Arthur Young being found in a van. That was a case whereby we had received intelligence that they were going to commit some sort of crime and the police reacted and prevented a crime from occurring by catching both persons with the firearm that they were carrying."

Jules Vasquez,
Subsequently someone in the department had a make nice meeting with them and next thing we know, they go for bail, the prosecutor doesn't object to bail, and those same two principals, they get bail.

Supt. Chester Williams,
"The issue of the police having a make nice meeting with them, it is not really that we want to say a make nice meeting, but from time from time to time we try to do interventions into these different turf wars to try and see how best we could come up with both groups, coming up to an amicable solution to resolve the problem."

Jules Vasquez,
Sir there is an old Creole saying that if you take a puppy, it licks your face. One can have the criticism of your department that you all have been playing with these people who are assassins and treating them as reasonable people open to suggestions, open to your entreaties, the request that you have to hold it down but these people are assassins on a mission.

Supt. Chester Williams,
"Jules we need to look at things objectively. If the police go in an aggressive manner and pursue these people, we are criticized and we will take that criticism and we'll continue to go at them aggressively. But we are treating these people like any ordinary law abiding citizen. We are treating them the way they ought to be treated. If they have certain rights, that right must be given to them."

The current spate of violence started on November 13th when Kevin Parks was gunned down in front of his Euphrates Avenue home. Parks who had just been deported to Belize had long been an affiliate of the Backatown Crew, and George Street saw his return as a threat.