Witnesses say Holder shot at them in public

Kingsley Hinkson recalled being shot in the hand after Renaldo Ricardo Holder raised a firearm and fired several shots towards him and three of his friends.

Taking the witness stand in the No. 4A Supreme Court before a nine-member jury, Hinkson told the court that on the morning of July 19, 2017, he was outside his home in Venture, St John with Shanico Moore and Holder, who he also knew as Bar Back, when the two men began arguing.

Hinkson remembered trying to “cool the vibe”, telling both of them there was no need for the quarrel. He said that after this, Holder left.

Later, the witness said, Joshua Riley and Dashawn Carter had joined him and Moore at the front of the house when he saw Holder returning with another man that he did not recognise. It was then that the accused man lifted his arm and Hinkson saw a gun.

“Quick so he raise he hand and say ‘Wait, wunna playin bout hey?’ and he end up firing off two shots,” Hinkson stated, adding that he could see Holder clearly as his face was not covered. 

Saying he was puzzled when he first heard the shots, the witness said it was when the accused man stated, “Wait, wunna ain’t moving?” that he and the other men ran off.  

He told Senior State Counsel Joyann Catwell, who is prosecuting the matter, that he heard about seven shots.

“I went up through my gap, so I was like zagging, so when I make the last zag, my hand did feel warm . . . . I end up feeling like something hitting my hand. So I keep running, ‘cause you know, I frighten,” Hinkson testified.

He then went to an old house in the neighbourhood and wrapped his hand in his shirt before making his way down to the mini-mart and he was subsequently transported to the hospital.

Hinkson said he had known the accused for about 10 years.

Also taking the witness stand, Moore told the court that he had previously been in an altercation with Holder’s brother, and that morning in Venture, he and the accused came to “high words”, during which Holder threatened to shoot him. 

“He tell me ‘well, if you want vibe, we gine get vibe’,” Moore stated, noting that soon after, the accused drove off but came walking back about two to three hours later.

“He draw he gun and I ain’t move and when I was walking going to he, he start shooting . . . and I run off,” the eyewitness testified, saying that Bar Back was about 50 feet away from him when he began shooting.

He also told the court that the gun was black, and Holder had pulled it from his pocket.

Holder, of Edgecliff, St John, is charged with using a firearm without a valid licence and discharging a firearm along Venture, St John, in a manner that placed Carter, Riley and Moore in danger of death or serious bodily harm, on July 19, 2017.

He is also charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding Hinkson. Holder is self-represented.