Gunmen not sure whom they were shooting at – Victim

One of the eight men wounded last Saturday night, when gunmen opened fire at the Road Side Bar in Diamond, said on Monday that it was as if the gunmen were not sure whom they were shooting at.

Speaking from his bed at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH), the gunshot victim, who preferred to not have his name mentioned, told SEARCHLIGHT that he entered the establishment just before 9 p.m., and less than a minute after, the shooting began.

He said he had just lit a cigarette and before he could put it to his lips, he heard gunshots and looked up and saw a masked gunman come through one of two of the entrances of the popular liming spot.

The now angry man said he ran through one of the doors leading to the road and saw another gunman outside, who was also shooting and it seemed to him that he was aiming randomly. He said he saw three gunmen in all.

“To me, dem ain’t know who them come for; like dem been just shooting anybody them see,” said the wounded man, who threw himself over an embankment, ran to the main road and was whisked off to hospital by someone.

He said about 12 persons were at the establishment when it was shot up and only about four escaped unhurt, including a man who was frying chicken in the back and jumped through a window when the shooting started and a woman who was tending bar.

The man also said that the shop is usually very busy, and if the shooting had happened on Friday night, more persons would have been injured. He said he usually hangs out at the shop and only saw one stranger there at the time of the shooting and that person was sitting on a stool next to where he was standing.

“I usually go there to buy chicken when I finish working and just so, I could have get kill when I ain’t know nothing bout nothing and ain’t know what going on,” said the irate man.

Wounded during the shooting were Diamond residents: Fitzroy Ash, 59; Kerwin John, 52; Karim Benjamin, 25; Kaymanie Richards, 39; Andrew Layne, 37; Kenneth Barzie, 30 and Gregory Abraham, 33. Michael Richards,18, of Calliaqua was also hit during the melee. Two other persons, Oslin Thomas, 46, and Vanus Thomas, 30, were also injured while running away from the scene, but were not shot. They are both from Diamond.(LC)