Apart from the shooting deaths of two persons and the hospitalization of another victim, which are reported on the front page of this issue, there were four other shooting incidents that left nine other persons injured or hospitalized over a bloody weekend.
The shootings began at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday, February 15. Police said that Kenroy Tillett and Alton Roches were repairing Tillett’s truck in front of his house at the corner of Neal Pen Road and Monroe Street, when a gunman approached and opened fire on them.
Reports are that the gunman rode up from Monroe Street into Pen Road, where the men were working on the vehicle, and fired about 12 shots at them. In their attempt to escape the gunfire, they tried to run into the house, but the gunman shot at them several times and then rode away on his bicycle, disappearing into the area of Kraal Road.
The white Ford Ranger single-cab pickup, owned by Tillett, was seen with bullet damages on it. Bullet holes were in the back and front windshields and in both the passenger and driver side doors.
A person who was in the area who saw what had happened quickly took the men to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) in Tillett’s pickup. They were admitted in critical condition. Police who processed the area recovered (10) 9mm expended shells from the scene.
The men are fighting for their lives in the Intensive Care Unit at the KHMH. The motive for the shooting is yet unknown, and police have since launched an investigation. So far the gunman has not yet been arrested.
Incidentally, Alton Roches, 32, was originally charged with Nicoli Rhys for the sensational 2010 broad daylight murder of Andre Trapp on the steps of the Magistrate’s Court on Regent Street. Rhys was acquitted earlier in the day, Friday. Kenroy Tillett, 34, is the older brother of Shelton “Pinky” Tillett, who was killed in April of last year.
Then, at about 9:50 p.m. that same Friday, Wallace Donald Matura, 48, a car dealer, was standing at the corner of Orange Street and East Canal in front of VIP Wireless when a man rode up on a bicycle from the direction of East Canal and fired about 8 shots at him, hitting him multiple times. Matura fell to the street, with gunshot wounds in the abdomen, both arms and testicles.
At the same time, both Carmita Chan, 26, of Conchshell Bay, and Alchea Harris, 32, of no fixed address, were passing, and Chan was shot in the left buttocks, while Harris was shot in the hip.
Matura was taken to the KHMH, where he was admitted in a critical condition, and Chan and Harris were treated for their injuries and released.
The motive for the attack on Matura is not yet known.
Then, at about 1:34 on Saturday morning, Lincoln “Kilo Boy” Allen, 39, and Devon Dean Saldano, 23, were killed in Muñoz Alley, which runs into Majestic Alley, and Derek Cervantes was hospitalized after being shot in the chest. That story is reported elsewhere in this issue.
The shootings weren’t finished yet. At about 4:30 Sunday morning, Mario Ramos, 47, a mason of Mayflower Street, suffered gunshot injuries to the right hip and the left thigh. He told police that he was sitting on his bed when he heard four gunshots, and then felt a burning sensation in his hip and thigh, and realized that he had been shot.
Ramos is in the KHMH in a stable condition.
Later that Sunday evening, at about 6:40, Randy James Harris, 19, of Neal Pen Road, was shot in his right arm; Dean Gibson, 24, of Haynes Street, was shot in his left hand, and Orlando Vasquez, 39, of Rivero Street, was shot in the left hip.
The men were socializing in a yard on Kraal Road when a man described as having a dark complexion entered the yard and fired several shots at them, after which the shooter escaped in the area.
The three men were taken to the KHMH, where Vasquez was admitted in a stable condition and Harris and Gibson were treated and released. The motive of the attack is yet unknown.
Citizens with information that can lead to the arrest of those responsible for these shootings are urged to call the nearest police station, or 0800 TIPS.