The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE grief sparked by the murders of the two men who were involved in a triple shooting on Tuesday evening has been far reaching, with one of the victim’s employers telling The Tribune it is hard to understand why he was killed during the prime of his life.

Steve Wallace, owner of Block World where 35-year-old Mark Davis was employed, described his deceased worker’s death as a case of being in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”

Davis, Mr Wallace said, had just got married five weeks ago, and was the father of a four-week-old infant and seven-year-old son.

He said the victim, an employee of the block building business for the last six years, had just got off from work and was waiting for a ride home.

He told this newspaper that as the family grieved, he closed the doors of Block World yesterday to allow staff to mourn the loss of a “really great guy.”

Davis was injured in a hail of gunfire during the incident on Tuesday, off Peardale Street, near Wulff Road. He was taken to the hospital in a private vehicle, but later died while he was receiving medical attention. Another man who was shot died at the scene. A boy, said to be eight-years-old, who was also shot during the incident remains in hospital. The child was reportedly walking home from a nearby water pump when he was shot.

“He was a good Christian man and a very good father,” Mr Wallace told The Tribune. “He was not only a good employee, but he was just a good person and you could always count on him. If you needed something, he would help you out. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“We shut down because everybody is in shock and everybody came in today because it is pay day. So everyone had to come in, but they are all in shock. I just said, ‘guys you need to go be with your family and hug the ones you love because you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.’”

He continued: “His mother just came by. I am 64-years-old and I haven’t dealt with a crying grieving mother in my life. You just don’t know what to say to someone except to sit there and cry with them. That’s about all I could do.

“But it is tough for everyone.”

According to Mr Wallace, the victim had been standing in a group with other young men, when a man whose face was covered with a t-shirt approached the group and opened fire. The victim and another man ran and sought shelter, Mr Wallace said. When the gunfire ceased, he said both men realised they had been shot.

Asked about this yesterday, Chief Superintendent Clayton Fernander, officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit, said police were unsure of the circumstances. He could not say who was the intended target of the shooting.

However, he said a man was assisting police with their investigation.

Chief Supt Fernander added that the child, who was also shot, is said to be recuperating in hospital and remains in stable condition.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call police at 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.