One man killed, cousin injured in Diamond

Yesterday, Richard ‘Richie’ Barnwell said that he could still hear the gunshots that injured him and took his cousin’s life, ringing in his ears.

“I can’t even tell you how I feel, I watch my own cousin die right in front my eyes and I have to live with that,” said Barnwell whose cousin Sheldon ‘Billy’ Pollin{{more}} lost his life on Wednesday night when two masked gunmen opened fire on him while he was tending his shop at Diamond.

Speaking while standing in front the shop where the shooting took place, Barnwell, who was shot three times and lived to tell the tale, told SEARCHLIGHT that he, Pollin and Pollin’s girlfriend were in the small wooden shop watching a movie when he saw two masked men running towards the shop.

“Being there is my lime. I was there in the night time, me and Billy was tired and just wanted to finish watching the movie, his wife wanted to lock up. When I do so, I see a mask man ah run come, so me try touch Billy and say ‘Billy watch ya’, and from me talk me done get one in ah me hand,” recalled Barnwell who added that the gunman ran into the shop and he tried to hold onto the gun but was shot in his other hand, then in his chest.

“…and the rest ah them just ah pelt shot pon Billy and me pretend like me dead and them walk over me. Me just stay silent because me been ah wait for the next one come inna me head,” said Barnwell.

“I don’t feel good about this. Me is ah man, me ain’t doing no crime and my partner ain’t doing no crime, he is a businessman. This is serious thing, this have to stop and people have to know wah them ah do and who them ah deal with. Trust me, because you don’t mess with certain family.”

Barnwell said that he does not know how many times Pollin was hit but recalls numerous shots being fired.

“…he get too much, shots in my ears man, I don’t even wah remember them because just like I hearing them still, it’s like a rewind,” said Barnwell.

The wounded man said that Pollin’s shop was a hangout spot where anybody in the neighbourhood could have come to for a good time.

“It’s a bad thing that happen to my boy, I wouldn’t lime here if I didn’t feel comfortable, it where I always hang out,” said Barnwell who is originally from Vermont but now lives at Diamond.

Barnwell opined also, that he was sent home from the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) too quickly.

Two of the bullets that struck him went straight through his wrists, but Barnwell revealed that the doctors told him that the bullet in his chest cannot be removed.

He said that he thinks that he should have been kept at the hospital for observation instead of being discharged and sent home so soon after almost being fatally injured.(LC)