According to police, Stanley was standing on Welch Street when a lone gunman rode up to him on a bicycle and fired a single shot that caught him in the left side of his neck.

About 10 minutes later, police and BDF on patrol in the Berkeley Street area observed a person that fit the description of the gunman riding a bicycle. Police said that they made attempts to detain the suspect, who attempted to flee but lost control of his bicycle and fell.

?The suspect then reached into his pants in a suspicious manner,? according to police, and so they fired two shots, one of which hit the suspect in his right calf. Still, the suspect continued to run and was seen throwing an object that resembled a firearm, said police.

It appeared that the police had pursued their suspect from somewhere in the Berkeley Street area, but it was on West Canal Street that they caught up with him, said one eyewitness.

Neighbors in the Rocky Road area said police, in their attempt to apprehend the suspect, were firing shots in a dangerous manner, as there were many people, including children, in the area. One person who was almost shot was Elena Gabourel, Justice of the Peace, who lives on West Canal Street.

Amandala briefly spoke with Gabourel, who, at the time, was being hugged by a relative as they escorted her to her home, about three houses from where the shooting occurred.

However, Gabourel, whose blood pressure had soared after the shootout, was unable to speak to us properly because she initially thought that she had been shot, and was still shaken up over the ordeal.

Amandala, who was on scene as police tried to apprehend their suspect, spoke with an eyewitness who saw what transpired between the suspect and police.

A young mother of a newborn told Amandala that the man was walking up West Canal Street when police approached him, but he ran. She said that it was at this point that the police began firing in the neighborhood, as they tried to apprehend the suspect.

The eyewitness said that she was sitting in front of her house on West Canal, with her baby, and she had to run and hide in the yard as the shots were being fired in her direction. She recalled hearing about three shots.

She said it was at this moment that the JP, who was standing near the corner of West Canal St. and Rocky Rd. talking with some other people, was almost shot.

One resident, whose house was struck by a bullet, is Gilda Smith, who lives at #187 West Canal Street. Smith told the newspaper that when she heard the shots hit the side of her house, she grabbed her 5-month-old grandson and dropped to the ground. Her husband, who was at home with her at the time of the shooting, also threw himself to the ground. She said that both of them were scared, as their windows were opened when the shots were fired towards their home.

The bullet did not enter the house, they said, but it carved a hole at the side of the house.

Police, in their report on the incident today, said, ?Police fired two shots, one of which hit said suspect in the calf.?

But, according to the neighbors in the area, police fired many shots, not only two.

Police said that a search of the area to recover the object that was thrown by their suspect was futile.

The Commissioner of Police, Jose Carmen Zetina, has ordered a full investigation into the matter, as is customary, said the police report.

Coleman?s condition at press-time, according to hospital personnel, was critical.