Editor’s note: Read updated article “Paul’s Avenue mass shooting victims identified”.
Several people were shot and injured in Paul Avenue, Kingstown Friday night on the first anniversary of the mass killing in Kingstown that claimed the lives of five people.
iWitness News was reliably informed that people were socialising in the street with a man who was scheduled to travel today (Saturday) when gunshots were fired from a passing vehicle.
The man who was scheduled to travel was also shot, one source told iWitness News but declined to identify the victims.
There were varying reports of the number of people who were shot but one person, said to be close to one of the victims, was confident that the number is six.
One source said that five males and one female were shot, adding that some of the victims were said to be in a “critical condition” and would need surgery.
The shooting came exactly one year after two men exited a white SUV in the Harbour Club area towards the east of the city and opened automatic gunfire on a group of men socialising on the roadside, killing five people.
Among those killed was Paul’s Avenue resident Lamont Hector aka Dutchie.
The other victims were Jamal Bobb aka Dutty, Dondre Hillocks, Ricky Taylor, and Kashie Primus, a 14-year-old schoolboy.
All the victims except the schoolboy are said to have been playing cards, while the schoolboy was watching from some distance away.
Police are yet to charge anyone for those murders despite offering an EC$50,000 award for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.
At a press conference in Kingstown on Wednesday, acting Commissioner of Police Enville Williams said the investigation into the mass killing continues.
“It is a complex investigation and we are working with external agencies to bring to a successful conclusion,” the police chief said.
“I met on Monday with colleagues from the FBI — that’s Carnival Monday — to look at how best to pursue, or continue the investigation in this mass killing because we are committed to bringing justice for those families and to see to persons who are contemplating in our space to commit such acts of violence that we will not rest until you’re brought to justice,” Williams said.
The police had stationed officers full time in Paul’s Avenue and Rose Place, but those details were withdrawn some months ago.
This ah spiteful thing now?