Six wounded in Paul’s Avenue shooting

LAST FRIDAY July 19, 2024, exactly one year after five men were shot and killed on Upper Bay Street, Harbour Club, persons were reminded of the incident with a similar brazen shooting in Paul’s Avenue that left six persons wounded.

The incident on Friday had a few differences, two of them being the type of vehicle used and the fact that none of the six persons who were shot died.

Wounded during the attack which took place around midnight were Ezekiel George, 40, of Kingstown Park (shot in his legs); Kanaka Smith, 32, of Pauls Avenue, (shot in his hands); Shakir Dasilva, 42, of Lowmans Leeward (shot in his legs); Palesa Bynoe, 42, of Paul’s Avenue (shot in her foot, hand and back); Paul Moses, 53, of Campden Park/Canada (shot in his legs and back); and Tesan Moses, of Redemption Sharpes (shot in his back).

When SEARCHLIGHT visited Paul Moses at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) on Monday, he said two masked gunmen, one in a red shirt and one in a black shirt, emerged from a red car and began shooting at his group of friends who were gathered outside the home of Palesa Bynoe in Paul’s Avenue.

He said the group was having a send-off barbecue for him as he was supposed to return to Canada the following day where he plies his trade as a construction worker.

Moses also told SEARCHLIGHT that this is the first time he was experiencing such reckless violence, and he is hoping to be airlifted to Canada for medical attention.

Persons are entertaining the idea that the shooters probably thought the group was having a one-year remembrance event for the men killed on Wednesday July 19, 2023.

One of the Harbour Club victims Lamont Hector, lived a few feet away from where Friday’s shooting took place, however, one of the victims, Palesa Bynoe, said no one who was closely associated with Hector had gone to the social event so she is unsure why gunmen opened fire on the gathering.

Paul’s Avenue is no stranger to shootings of this nature as several incidents have seen gunmen shooting and killing persons in the area.

In 2018 on October 13, four men were shot in Paul’s Avenue around midnight with one succumbing to his injuries. Killed on that day was Len “President” Stowe, said to be originally from Bequia. Injured in the melee were residents of the area Erel “Boatie” Hector, 18; Farax “Spragga” Prescott, 40; and Dino King 48.

Erel is the son of Lamont Hector who was killed last year in the mass shooting at Harbour Club.

Also, On October 15, 2017, Jawanza “Sanga” Fraser, a businessman, was shot six times while standing in the road in Paul’s Avenue opposite the Avenues Sports Bar. Fraser is Lamont’s brother. Then in 2022 in the area, Fraser was shot again and survived. Omo Wally Simmons was wounded in the same incident but survived.