The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FOUR MEN are dead and three others are fighting for their lives in hospital following six separate shootings in the capital between New Year’s eve and last night.

The latest murder took place just before 7 o’clock last night on Buttonwood Avenue, Pinewood Gardens, where police say one man was killed and another rushed to hospital after gunmen opened fire.

Earlier, at around 2am, the first murder of 2014 took place. Police say the victim was sitting on a vehicle in Hospital Lane, when a man armed with a handgun approached him and shot him several times before fleeing on foot.

The victim was taken to hospital by a private vehicle where he died of his injuries.

About two hours later, around 4:35am, police received reports of another shooting, this time on East Bay Street.

According to reports the victim was walking behind a building off East Bay when a man in a white Honda Accord fired several shots at him, hitting him in the leg and abdomen before fleeing on foot.

The victim was taken to hospital where he is listed in serious condition.

Late Tuesday night an Ida Street man became the country’s 118th murder victim of 2013.

It happened around 10:30pm.

Police say the victim was walking on Ida Street south of Balfour Avenue, when a man, armed with a handgun, shot him several times before fleeing on foot.

The victim was taken to hospital by ambulance where he later died of his injuries.

Four hours earlier around 6:15pm police received reports that a man had been shot in the area of 8th Street off Robinson Road. When police arrived on the scene they found a man lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds in his body. He was taken to hospital by ambulance where he is listed in critical condition.

This shooting came hours after police discovered the body of a man in bushes behind Yellow Elder Primary School off Baillou Hill Road. That discovery happened around 10am.

When police arrived on the scene, they found the lifeless body of a male lying on a track road, with multiple gunshot wounds in his body. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anyone with information on any of these incidents is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

The country’s murder count for 2014, now stands at one.

These shooting incidents come just days after Prime Minister Perry Christie revealed the governments new plan to tackle crime.

Some of the initiatives include, re-introducing the 12-hour shift for police, creating a gang unit and passing laws to bind the hands of judges to prevent them from allowing persons accused of serious crimes to be granted bail.