Several shootings over holiday weekend
Criminals were undeterred over the holidays and the number of shootings turned the weekend into a Wild West movie. Early Christmas morning in Saint Matthews Village, fifty year-old John Olivera, a laborer of Franks Eddy Village, was shot in his head. Olivera’s son, John Junior told police that the shooting followed a fight in his father and twenty year-old Darren Middleton, and him were involved. Olivera said that at about two o’clock on Christmas morning they were at El Pedegral Bar in the village along with two other men when the altercation erupted with Middleton. The Oliveras reportedly left the bar and as they were about to drive off they saw three men and a woman standing on the road. At that same time five shots rang out and Olivera Senior was hit in the back of his head. He remains in a critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Police have since charged Darren Middleton along with twenty-one year old Rene Rivas, twenty-six year old Gabriel Juarez, forty-four year old Jose Juarez, and twenty year old Manuel Soto, all of Saint Matthews Village with Attempted Murder.
In a separate incident, just after midnight on Christmas, twenty year old Randy Quilter, a bartender of Queen Charlotte Street, narrowly escaped death when a slew of bullets missed him by inches and instead shattered his window and home appliances. Quilter told police that he was walking into his house when his attention was drawn to an armed twelve year old riding towards him. He said he dashed for cover inside his house just in time to avoid getting hit. Police have charged two brothers, Keon Swasey and his brother, a minor. This follows a report made by Quilter’s mother, thirty-seven year old Beverly Neal, who said that her family was on her verandah adjacent to Quilter’s home and noticed one of the suspects pointing a firearm at them while the other shot at her son.
In another shooting, a resident of Belama Phase one was shot on December twenty-eighth. On Sunday night, twenty-nine year old Griffith Green Junior was riding his beach cruiser bicycle on Raccoon Street Extension heading towards Central American Boulevard when a man began firing shots at him. He was caught by one of the bullets and received a wound to the center of his lower back. Green is considered to be in stable condition and the police have detained three suspects for questioning. If his name sounds familiar that is because last week Monday, Griffith Green Senior, a security guard for Alliance Bank, was held up along with a clerk inside the bank’s ATM on Barrack Road. Green, who was robbed of his wallet and cell phone, said that the incidents were not related.
