PM, UNICEF champion condemn Silver Hill shooting of child

12-year-old girl was shot in Silver Hill, Christ Church, on Thursday night when a masked gunman opened fire in the area, prompting an outcry from Prime Minister Mia Mottley and UNICEF Children’s Champion Faith Marshall-Harris.

Detectives have launched an enquiry into the incident, in which a man dressed in black exited a car that had driven through the district and sprayed two public housing units with bullets. The child was hit during the shooting, which also sent other children fleeing for their lives.

One resident who witnessed the attack shared her account on radio.

“We were outside with the people little children, and . . . the girl that got shot, she was there sitting down, the boy from next door was sitting down next to she, the boy from up the road was sitting down right here on this little pavement, and I was sitting down right there by the gate in the white chair,” recounted the resident.

“The car came down the road,” the witness added, “and it stopped right there. And the man come out from in the front seat, in the passenger seat. He looked out and he had on a ski mask, a black jacket . . . he stopped, he got out, he looked at me, I looked right in his eyes and he looked right in my eyes. The thing that frightened me was the ski mask because when I see somebody in a ski mask, I just run.”

As the resident fled, so did the others. But the 12-year-old was caught in the gunfire. The child “ended on the ground next to me, and she ended up getting shoot through she foot into she hand”.

“And when [she]get up off the ground, she was right next to me. She got up off the ground and she say . . . ‘ I think I get shoot. I gine dead?’ She was at the top of the step bleeding out . . . and the neighbours carry she to the hospital,” the witness said.

Besides the 12-year-old who was in the line of fire, the resident revealed that three 14-year-olds were also shot at.

In the aftermath of the shooting, which has left the Silver Hill community gripped in fear, Prime Minister Mottley condemned the gun attack, calling it “unacceptable” and expressed her sorrow for the young victim.

“I am truly sorry to have learnt last night about a young child, 12 years old, who received a bullet from cars going through the neighbourhood. It is unacceptable,” she said. “That is why a few weeks ago I called on all Bajans . . . we need to step up.”

Mottley noted that young people have been falling victim to violence too frequently in recent times.

She said: “This battle will not be won by the police alone, by the other law enforcement officers alone, by the government alone, none of us alone. This battle will only be won when all of us step up and apply our hearts to wisdom. Guns do not walk and guns do not talk,” she stressed.

The prime minister also appealed to those engaging in violence to consider the harm they are causing.

“I want to reach out to all who may be inclined to want to settle disputes in this way. You are going to hurt innocent people. And I am asking us, please, across our communities, the mothers, the fathers, the sisters, the brothers, the children, those who you know may be tempted to use guns, let us talk with them; and let us get them to put it down,” Mottley urged.

UNICEF child champion Marshall-Harris, a former juvenile court magistrate, voiced shock and outrage, declaring that it was a “terrible day” when children could not sit safely in front of their own homes without fear of being attacked.

“It is a terrible day when children can’t innocently sit in front of their own homes, and not on the street . . . they are where they are supposed to be, and they are being attacked, where they ought to be safe,” she told Barbados TODAY.

“I am shocked and saddened by this news,” Marshall-Harris added.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb