Last week, we showed you how Area Representative Tracy Taegar-Panton was partnering with the police to try to de-escalate tensions in the Conch Shell Bay area. Well, it appears that more work is needed because there was another shooting in near the fish market last night.
It happened at around 8:00 when 21 year-old Jaheel Goodger was shot by a gunman. According to police, he was riding a bike on West Collet Canal, heading towards Ebony Street, when he saw 3 men standing in front of an unknown alley. He said that one of them fired several shots at him, one of which hit him in the right leg.
Now, for the residents of the Conch Shell Bay area, they find themselves in what looks to be an escalation of tensions within the same neighbourhood. On New Years Day, 22 year-old Collin Sutherland was murdered there, and since then, there's been the murder of Clinton Frazer, the shooting of 19 year-old Keimar Nicholas, and, last night Goodger. All this while police have blanketed the area, in fact, reports say the shooting happened within sight of two cops last night.
The residents shared their sense of urgency that something needs to be done and soon:
Voice of: Resident - Concerned About Violence
"It was around after 8, I was standing at my door eating and I heard firecrackers but I didn't think that it was gunshot. When I actually looked up and see the fire and the smoke it had really gone too far. Conchshell Bay is not a violent area, it's a money making area, it's a business area. We socialize in a different way. I don't know what the year turned out to be like for 2017. The socialization turned to violence and it doesn't make any sense because next people lives are in jeopardy and the victims are not even from around here."
Reporter
"You only saw the fire from the barrel of the gun that's all you saw right?"
Voice of: Resident - Concerned About Violence
"Yes all I saw was the fire. I didn't see who did it, who run or anything. All I saw was the fire because where I was designated was a difficult sightseeing for me to even see anything. It's very hard for even the people in the community and the vicinity around here because we are violent people. We are loving people, nice people and welcoming people and this welcome for the year is totally wrong. It's hard for us to even communicate to each other, because we even have this beefing against our own kind that is doing this stupidity around the area. It doesn't make any sense. It has to stop."
Reporter
"Are you fearful now for living in this area?"
Voice of: Resident - Concerned About Violence
"I lived through here all my years from birth, 22 years and out of 22 years the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 it's very out of order. We need to put some clips on these errors because it's a big error. Errors that we wouldn't think would have been the error, because the affiliation, the violence is right in between the community and it's a small community to have this type of reaction."
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