4-y-o girl eager to dance again after shot thrice in gang war

Imagine helplessly witnessing your four-year-old child being shot a few steps away from you and having to crawl on her belly to escape her heartless attackers after being shot in both legs, with the impact breaking her right foot.

The child's 29-year-old mother, who opted to remain anonymous, was in tears on Sunday as she recalled the pain and helplessness that she experienced last Friday about 4:50 p.m. when she watched her daughter being peppered with bullets on Walter Street in Kingston during a reported ongoing feud with members of the Wellyskelly Gang from Wellington Street.

Last week was a torrid one for infants stung towards the back end of Child Month, with at least four small children the victims of gunshot injuries, one fatally.

After a six-year-old was killed, allegedly by a 15-year-old, in Westmoreland, three infants - a two-year-old, a one-year-old, and a four-year-old - were shot on consecutive days in the gritty streets of the capital, Kingston.

A woman who saw Friday's shooting unfold on Walter Street last Friday is still rattled by the violence of that afternoon.

“Mi stand up inna the shop and watch her a crawl, 'cause when she get the shot, she start jump up and down and the bwoy still a fire the shot dem, and she a try run and she drop and she start crawl pon her belly until she reach the gambling house,” said the eyewitness.

However, the mother said she could not run to her daughter’s rescue as the gunmen had started firing on the road where she was.

“Mi turn idiot! Mi just a run up and dung a beat mi foot and a bawl out har name,” she told The Gleaner.

When the shooting subsided, the woman said she rushed to her daughter's side but quickly retreated in disbelief. The child sustained three gunshot wounds.

The four year-old was among three persons who were shot and injured in the attack carried out by two men on a bike, as well as two who were on foot. A 24-year-old pregnant woman and 44-year-old woman were also injured.

The mother is now worried that her daughter, who is jovial and loves to dance, may never be able to move to the rhythm of music again.

“Why dem never shoot me inna me hand? How me a go dance?” the innocent child has reportedly been asking her mother.

“Me cah believe dem shoot me,” is another remark that she has been saying repeatedly, her mother shared.

But, according to the mother, although the four-year-old is crying to come home, she knows she is traumatised and will need counselling.

The mother is thanking God for sparing not only her daughter’s life but her eight-year-old son's as well, as he was among the group on the street corner when the shooting occurred.

However, she said her niece, who had been alert and was watching the bikers, ran, pulling the boy along, when the attackers struck.

“Mi coulda lose mi two children,” said the mother, overcome with emotion.

“Sometimes mi say a better a did me, 'cause she little, she cah manage dem something there. When mi visit her a while ago, she a bawl for her foot; she inna pain,” the mother added.

Violent death has been a familiar visitor to the family.

Just last year, the mother's 64-year-old father was murdered in his sleep after a gunman entered their premises and shot him through a window. She, too, had been home sleeping.

The family, she said, has not fully recovered as they had also lost their home a day after the 2020 shooting when men firebombed their neighbour’s house. Theirs was a casualty of the attack.

The other two victims of Friday's shooting were home resting on Sunday. Both said they were scared to leave their homes and have been unable to sleep comfortably since the shooting.

The pregnant woman, whose relatives have been injured or killed in the ongoing feud, said that Friday's wounding was her first personal brush with gun violence.

“A di worst experience this a mi life. Mi coulda lose me life, and mi pregnant,” she said.

The pregnant woman, who believes she was the target, is grateful that her aunt had been suspicious of the bikers and helped her seek cover when the shooting started.

The family has been embroiled in a series of attacks dating back to 2019 that have claimed the lives of two brothers and others in the community.

The other victim of Friday's shooting, who sustained injuries to her arm, said the entire community was in fear and that people were even afraid to go on the main road to hail a taxi.

The injured women don't believe there will be an end to the gun attacks but are lobbying for the area to be declared a zone of special operations - a security option with beefed-up police and military presence.

They are also want Kingston Central Member of Parliament Donovan Williams to visit the community and try to broker peace.

Superintendent Tommie-Lee Chambers, commanding officer for Kingston East Police Division in which the location, told The Gleaner that Friday's shooting appears to be another episode in a gang war between Wellyskelly, from Wellington Street, and rivals on Walter Street.

However, Chambers said the police are yet to make an arrest.

The police are urging Richard Higgins, otherwise called Bob, who is on the 'Wanted Wednesday' list, to turn himself in to law enforcers.

The Kingston East Police Division has seen an explosion of violence this year, with murders climbing, up to May 19, by 56 per cent to 28 - 10 more than for the corresponding period in 2020. Shootings have rocketed 114 per cent from 14 to 30 over the comparative period.

In the meantime, Chambers sought to assure residents that the police would maintain a strong presence in the area to deter further attacks.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com