Basketball gathering turns deadly

“Wrong place, wrong time.”

Chapman Lane resident Natasha Hewitt made that grim summing up of the shooting which claimed the life of a 45-year-old St James man and left three others injured on Wednesday night.

Police reported receiving an anonymous call at 8:46 p.m., of a shooting in Chapman Lane, St Michael and that a man was bleeding.

A group of men had gathered near a shop along Third Avenue, when an assailant approached and fired several shots.

Delon Covell Asgill, 45, of West Terrace, St James, died at the scene. Three other men were injured. Two were transported by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, while a third was taken to the hospital by private vehicle.

Hewitt, who has lived in the area all her life, said the men had gathered to watch a basketball game when shots erupted.

“I don’t like it. It hard, I don’t like it at all, I tired,” she said as she looked towards the area where blood had been washed away.

While acknowledging that Chapman Lane once had a reputation as a crime hotspot, she said the situation had improved significantly in recent years.

“Down here cool down a lot, you know, one time we had a reputation.”

According to Hewitt, it was common for men from the area to gather at night to socialise

“The fellas came here last night to watch a little basketball, last night was finals.”

She recalled being at home when the gunfire rang out.

“I was inside with my son talking about the same shooting thing you know and I just hear pak-pak. I said, they cleaning, they testing and then I hear [what she described as a string of shots], I tell my child no, that ain’t testing. That is death.”

The experience has left her shaken.

“I start to freak out now cause I never had it so close, cause I live just short there . . .”

She considered one of the injured aslike family. “He like my big brother to me.

She also spoke of another injured man who she said rarely socialised in the area.

“He don’t get into nothing with nobody, he don’t normally lime, but as I tell you he come to watch basketball finals last night.”

She said the incident brought home just how easily innocent people can become victims.

“My son does work, he could have been coming home and get what they get. I got a big son there, like he hyper he don’t keep quiet, in and out, he could be coming in and get it the same time. I gotta watch myself and my children.”

Despite a police outpost being located nearby, Hewitt said the attack happened so quickly that there was little the officers could have done.

“What much so them could do, the police is only human, they got them family too.

The emotional toll of the shooting remained evident the following morning.

“Too much innocent people getting killed.”

Apostle Dr Lucille Baird of Mount Zion’s Missions visited the community on Thursday morning to offer condolences and check on participants involved in her ministry’s youth outreach programme.

The church began working in Chapman Lane following a spate of violence in 2019, Dr Baird said. 

“I work with these young men, we came down here in 2019 when they had all the killings, we came down here and started to work. Since then we haven’t had that sort of crime.

She explained that several of the young men attend her church and participate in programmes aimed at keeping them engaged.

“They go to my church on Sundays and then they go to the farm and work and he pays them during the summertime to keep them active and they enjoy that.”

Baird stressed that there are many positive influences within the community.

“I came to see if my guys are ok and what’s happening, there’s another area in 6th Avenue, my guys are down there too, So I’m just checking to see that my guys are ok, to ensure that no one has hurt them.”

She said the rise in gun violence was creating fear among ordinary Barbadians.

“It’s really getting to the point where Barbadians are becoming afraid now and when you living in fear, that’s not a healthy society.

Baird lamented what she sees as the erosion of community spirit.

“We were a society that used to care and share and walk the streets and felt safe and so on but all of us have to work together, if you see something say something.”

While prayer remains important, she argued that practical intervention is also needed.

“As a pastor, we keep praying, prayer is not enough, we gotta have action so we want to up and increase the programmes in this areas so we can try to avoid what’s happening in these communities.”

“Make them more viable and make them more applicable to the guys that are out there,” she explained, adding that young people themselves may have ideas about programmes that would better serve their needs.

“Whatever we can do to assist them.”

No arrests have yet been made in the shooting while detectives continue their enquiries. 

 

(LG)