The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

ONE man is dead and five other people, including a woman, are in hospital after a gunman opened fire at a public park off Baillou Hill Road on Tuesday night.

Police have nine men in custody in connection with the incident.

The shooting pushed the country’s murder count to 42 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

The shooting took place shortly after 9pm in the Sunshine Park area.

According to police, people were in a park when a man with a handgun got out of a white Honda Legend and fired several shots into the crowd before speeding off in an unknown direction.

As a result, five men and a woman, ranging in age between 18 and 25, were shot. The victims were taken to hospital by ambulance. One of the men died shortly after arrival. The other victims are listed as stable.

Police have not officially identified the murder victim, but The Tribune understands he is 20-year-old Mekenes Polard.

The Tribune visited the crime scene yesterday and spoke with several residents who said that, despite the latest shooting, they “still feel safe in Sunshine Park”.

One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said when she first heard the shots, she thought it was fireworks. It was not until she heard screaming that she realised “some people were shot”.

“People always on the park shooting firecrackers so that’s what I thought it was, until I heard someone scream ‘Help the girl, help the girl’. A lot of people were on the park at that time because every evening people come out on the park and play ball. This is six years I live here and I never see anything like that,” she said.

“I came out and I ran over to the girl lying on the ground and she said to me that she was shot in her leg and she was begging us for water, but I told the other lady that was helping her don’t give her no water because if she give her the water she was going to die. We went and prayed with her until the police and ambulance came, me and two other ladies. Only the girl I paid attention to. She was talking telling us not to let her die and we must help her. We told her to hold on, the ambulance soon reach.”

Terrance McSweeny, a basketball coach and a Sunshine Park resident for more than 50 years, said he still feels safe and will continue to go to the park and help the children with basketball, despite the shooting.

“I have been living here from 1965 and I have always had good relations with the kids on the park. As a matter of fact when they playing ball, I give them my ball and when I need to get it back I get it back. Up to yesterday (Tuesday), I had shooting practice with one of my ball players and the guys were using the ball, quite a bit of them congregate on the park,” Mr McSweeney said.

“It’s difficult to say if all the young men and women that you see on the park are from the neighbourhood.

“This area is relatively safe; other than a little mischief and fights on the basketball court, there isn’t much happening. So it’s difficult to brand the area even though the incident took place here.”

Anyone with information on this shooting is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

Investigations continue.