Drive by shooting on Mayflower Street

They were in front of a neighborhood shop Sunday evening when suddenly a car pulled out and a shower of bullets rained down. Three men were hit and children on the street ducked for cover. As the car sped away it riddled a nearby house with bullets. News Five spoke with one of the victims today at the Karl Heusner Memorial.

Police say they do not know if Sunday evening’s incident at the corner of Mayflower and Vernon Streets was a random shooting but investigations so far suggest it may have been gang related. According to witnesses, a small blue car pulled up and they heard several shots. Twenty-six year old Joseph Panting, who did not wish to appear on camera, was shot twice in the back as he waited at the corner to buy fried chicken. He says he saw the bullets, but not the trigger man, or men.

Joseph Panting, Shooting Victim

“I don’t know who; I no see nobody. I just see fire from the car; just see fire from the car. I didn’t see who it was.”

Although Panting claims he does not know why anyone would want to harm him, he is certain the shots, which he says were numerous, were fired in his direction.

Joseph Panting

“I see like a car pull up, a blue car, tinted. The same time I heard a lot of shots, at least thirty or thirty-five.”

Q: “And they were firing at you? You were the target?”

Joseph Panting

“I no know if I was the target but when I find out I had already been shot, so I just cover down. Some small children were around and I just push them so they could go down and when the shots finished I just got up and I ran.”

Also injured in the incident were two plainclothes police officers on special assignment in the area. P.C. Richard Gentle’s neck was grazed by a bullet and P.C. Pedro Teck received a gunshot wound to his right side. But the people on the street at six fifteen p.m. weren’t the only ones afraid. A family living on Vernon Street said they hid under their dinning room table as the car passed and flying bullets hit their two story wooden home. Issac Robinson who was not home at the time said when he and his wife returned their daughter told them about what had happened.

Issac Robinson, Resident

“There was a hail of gunfire and we all had to lie down on the ground and we were very, very excited about it. When I came upstairs I decided to take a check on the back step with a flashlight because it was dark. And when I look around the wall of the house, that’s when I saw the bullet marks around the house.”

Joseph Panting underwent surgery late Sunday evening to remove a part of his liver that was damaged by one of the bullets. Both Panting and P.C. Teck remain in the K.H.M.H. in a stable condition.

Police say they are not yet certain who the intended victim was and are looking for four suspects.