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The combatants in this case are neighboring groups who live around the corner from each other - and this blameless young man got caught in the middle. Here's the story:...

Jules Vasquez reporting
20 year old Deidron McKoy was killed here inside his family yard on Haynes Street on Friday night. A gunman barged in and fired seven to eight shots.

He had been socializing here with his family and friends after a day at work: He was on his way out when the gunman pounced:

Voice of: Natasha Smith, Deidron's Sister
"When he already finished with us he was coming out. He didn't reach out the gate. The gunman came inside the gate and approached my brother, gave him the first shot. When he gave him the first shot, my brother ran and after that I heard bang, bang, bang! When my brother ran, he (gunman) gave him another one in his back and when he dropped on the ground, you just see blood gushed from his mouth. He couldn't even say anything and was so frightened in his face. He opened his eyes big. He didn't know what catch him. They chance my brother out of his life. Mt brother is my mother's bread winner. Every Saturday when he gets pay, he would give my mother his whole pay. He is not a bad person."

Police say that it is retaliation for a shooting that happened a week before right around the corner, about 100 feet from the scene of Friday night's murder:

Sr. Supt, Marco Vidal, Commander - Southside
"We believe that it is in fact a retaliation to that incident that occurred and so we are seeing it as one of the rivalries."

"Because of the ongoing rivalries that exists between these factions, we expect that these people will be going after each other. We know that the last incident involves some players from one of the key gangs and subsequently we anticipated that there would be some level of retaliation which we eventually saw over the weekend. So yes it is a gang rivalry situation that we are looking at."

But, Friday's victim was not one of the gang members: In fact, he was a special needs individual - who was not gang affiliated:

Voice of: Natasha Smith, Deidron's Sister
"He doesn't even smoke weed. He is not a gunman - nothing like that. My brother not even gangbang. My brother goes to work, he comes home. I guess they were looking for someone and I guess they didn't meet the person, so they just took it out of my brother and they shouldn't because my brother is a mentally challenge person."

Today, we saw police regularly patrolling the area - but they couldn't prevent this murder on Friday:

Sr. Supt, Marco Vidal, Commander - Southside
"When these things happens you know it's a matter of split seconds. They commit a crime and they don't wait on the police. They moved. So when it is possible then the police will make all efforts to apprehend those when they are leaving the scene."

Mckoy's family says they don't want retaliation:

Voice of: Natasha Smith, Deidron's Sister
"My mom, we don't want any retaliation for Deidron. We left it up to God. He is not sleeping, he will take away everything. So we don't want any retaliation, because Deidron wasn't a gang bang person. Deidron loved going to church. So we don't want any retaliation. We just want the killing to stop. Why the killing can't stop?"

There is a police camera at that corner but it is almost ten years old - and not operational. Police say they have one person of interest.

To trace the root for this shooting - as you may recall one of the four victims of that shooting on Pen Road last weekend was 68 year old Gerald Tillett, the father of former George Street gang leaders, the deceased Gerald "Shiny" Tillett, and Shelton "Pinky" Tillett. Police believe Friday night's murder was a retaliation for that.