The sudden burst of gunfire was as the popping of microwave popcorn set to intense heat. The follow-up signal that things had gone awry was of a young man, dressed entirely in black, bolting through the alleyway stopping only after he was assured his safety and patting himself down and searching about his body; it was obvious that in his haste of fright and flight that he thought he might have been hit by flying bullets.  Just after 2pm pm on Monday July 19^th at the corner of the alley closest to the Island Main road, Cayon Street, connecting Millionaire Street and St. Johnsons Avenue gun fire erupted. Several young men who sat there allegedly playing at the game of draft were under apparent ambush. Those who ran were shot in the backs and legs. One young man, Jahari Hazel, was shot in the face.

When the dust cleared six (6) persons were wounded. Two young men ran themselves to the hospital followed closely behind by girlfriends or relatives running and breathing heavily it seems from the adrenaline of fright and the sudden exhaustion of running. Others were taken by vehicle to the hospital. Mr. Thuan ‘assassin’ Audain sat on the sidewalk on St. Johnson Avenue with bullets in his back and buttocks and waited until the ambulance had arrived. All told Mr. Thuan ‘Assassin’ Audain; Mr. Utendal ‘utee’ Whyte shot some time ago in a separate shooting; Mr. Shedrick Tucker; Mr. Jahari Hazel; Mr. Maurice Dublin and Mr. Steve Henry were the wounded.

The particulars of this latest shooting incident has disturbed resident, it appears, in a way that other shootings have not. The numbers shot at once is disturbing, yes, but the strategy utilized, many feel, is even more terrifying.  One resident (name withheld) said, “Some of them youth playing draft here ain’t in nothing with no body. Take the electrician fellow who got shot, he live right there,” the resident said pointing to the nearest house. “He is a man in his forties, he just sit there and watch the guys play. I sit here too and watch the guys play so I could have been here. Some of the guys I know are into ‘whatever’. I try to talk to them but I know I can’t stop them. When I sit here with them and they smoke their joints I tell them to respect the elders regardless. If an elder past by and they so much as push up their face. I tell them ‘fellas put out you spliff’. Usually they listen to me.”

Reports indicate that two (2) masks men came through the lower alleyway at the entrance nearest the Dr. Williams Connor School. One person speaking on condition of anonymity said someone sitting on Millionaire Street shouted out when they noticed the masks; the guns and masks gave an indication of what was to happen next. Alerted, the boys started running. That shout might have averted several deaths. One running young man tried climbing over the wall, ironically, of the constituency office of the current Minister of National Security, the Hon. Sam Terrence Condor. That young man was shot in the back.

One off-duty army personnel visited the crime scene the following morning. He jabbed six (6) fingers into the air, much as a child boasting its age, but he was instead extremely angry. The expletives he uttered made his anger apparent. “Six, eh, six? You realize what could have happened here yesterday?

Six, six people could have been dead at once. What are they trying to do to the area?” He asked of no one in particular. Investigations into the shootings are ongoing.