Gunfire in Hattieville…Three Injured…
The crime blotter also includes a string of shootings in which seven persons were victims. Early on Saturday morning shortly after four 0’clock, while birthday bash was taking place at the home of Tiffara Usher on Ysaguirre Boulevard, Hattieville, a shot single shot broke up the celebration. It was fired from an adjacent fence injuring three persons including a police officer. Two remain hospitalized and one of the victims has been released. Duane Moody has a report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
A residence on Ysaguirre Boulevard in Hattieville was the scene of another shooting over the weekend. Three persons: twenty-six year old disc jockey, Kevin Staine, forty-year old Gregory Leslie and Corporal Orlando Bowen, who is attached to the Ladyville police, were injured after a shot was fired at persons socializing at a party. Staine was injured to the head, while Leslie was hit to the hand and abdomen and Cpl. Bowen was grazed by the pellets.
Frederick Gordon
Insp. Frederick Gordon, Rural Executive Officer, Police Department
“Police responded to a party that was on the boulevard in Hattieville where they received information that gunshot was heard in the area. Where in respect of information when police proceeded to the area, two persons were seen with what appears to be gunshot wounds.”
Duane Moody
“Your investigation has shown what so far?”
Insp. Frederick Gordon
“Preliminary investigation reveals that there was a party going on at some Usher residence in Hattieville whereby investigation reveals that a lone gunman apparently went in the area and just shoot off a shot in the area.”
Voice of: Tiffara Usher
“When time dehn shot, I noh know exactly weh part dehn got it…I know dah somewhere by ih head corner because I mi deh right front ah him and he drop by my foot. Actually, I never even mi know ih get shot. Everybody got their own theory: We mi think dah wah chair broke; I mi think dah mi wah fire-cracker; they big pop shot. When I look at him and I see like blood di drop from his head corner and he say bwai I get shot. Dah soh dehn pick ahn up and hurry ker ahn out yah and one of our other friends mi deh out yah and he rush ahn out yah by the health center and I guess ambulance come and meet dehn and ker ahn dah Belize.”
Duane Moody
“So it was one single shot?”
Voice of: Tiffara Usher
“One single shot. He get it the worse though.”
Duane Moody
“So obviously it was a shotgun for there to be pellets cause others get hit too.”
Voice of: Tiffara Usher
“Yes because two of my other guests weh mi deh yah, one get it ina ih hand and ih belly and then I noh know where the other person get it, but he get it too.”
The party was a birthday celebration for both Tiffara Usher and her daughter. But according to Tiffara sometime after two a.m. on Sunday, a gunman stood from outside the leaf barricade set up around the premise and fired a single shot. She says that the intended target was the DJ of the party.
Voice of: Tiffara Usher
“Actually I mi have wah male stripper so we make all the males dehn gone and just us girls mi deh yah so. When the stripper done before and everything, we call back the males and everybody deh underneath yah di have fun. Party just kick off and everybody di dance. Then my DJ, he gone dah di end deh so over there and I wah say, I believe this now that I put one and one together. The shooter came from over dah way so. Because when the person done shoot, we hear dog di bark over dah way so, and I call my sister in law because I know that only she and fi she baby deh home—because my baby mi deh yah. So I call she and when I call she, she said that somebody run through the yard earlier.”
While police say a motive has not been established as yet, residents believe that an incident that occurred earlier last week in the village may have triggered the shooting. Duane Moody for News Five.
Several persons of interests have since been detained in connection with this shooting. It is not the first time that the family has been affected by violent crimes. In early 2013, there was a murder and an arson at one of the family houses. This was following by a arson on the house of Tiffara Usher.
