by Taranjah Yaw Fri, Aug 13, 2010

At about 11:50 am last Wednesday, gunshots rang out in the Central Leeward town of Barrouallie, and when the smoke cleared, four persons were nursing bullet wounds, including a 12-year-old girl, an 18-year-old woman, a 23-year-old woman and a man in his early thirties.{{more}}

The incident took place at the Barrouallie Community Centre while a summer workshop for teens was in progress.

Two of the wounded were attending the workshop: 12 year-old Britney Quashie was shot in her left foot in the area of her toes, while 18-year old Kaywana Reece was wounded in the shin area of her left leg.

Reece’s sister Kimesha said that her sister left home that morning to attend the workshop at the Centre, “Next thing my phone ring and they told me my sister was shot,” the distraught young lady said.

Joselle Gaymes, 23, was at the bus shed waiting for a bus to go to Kingstown when she was shot in the left shoulder.

A police report said that Bernard ‘Bibsie’ Derrick had gone to the Centre, armed with a knife and stick, and threatened to kill all the children who were participating in a programme there.

The report also said “The person in charge of the programme locked the children in and telephoned the police who responded immediately.”

Althea John, an eye witness, told SEARCHLIGHT that she was standing at the bus shed next to Gaymes when the shooting began. She said that she saw four officers mount the stairs to the second floor of the centre and approach Derrick, who began waving his arms threateningly.

The police report said when Derrick was approached by the police and ordered to drop the weapons, he “instead attacked the police who shot him in his arm.”

Derrick then fled the scene.

The three females who were wounded were taken to the Barrouallie Health Centre, where they were treated before being taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) in Kingstown by ambulance.

After getting away, Derrick who is mentally ill, ran through the town leaving a trail of blood. A Barrouallie resident who wishes to remain anonymous told SEARCHLIGHT that she followed the blood trail and caught up with Derrick at the corner of Bay Road in the Morgan Bay area.

“I held his arm and led him to sit on some sacks of sand that were in the corner and after he caught his breath, I began to lead him up the road to the clinic, but when he got a short distance just outside Mrs. Ash’s shop, he fell to the ground,” the eyewitness said. After being on the ground for a while, Derrick got up and began to run when he saw police officers coming, the Barrouallie resident said.

He ran south towards the cemetery and up to the Glebe Hill mountains trailed by his blood.

Around 2pm, investigative officers arrived at the scene of the shooting. A contingent of Special Services Unit (SSU) officers, under the command of Station Sargeant Hazelwood, arrived after the shooting to take part in a man hunt for a wounded Derrick who up to press time was still at large.