Lake I resident, Jessim Gladden, clinging to life after he was gunned down

Jessim Gladden

Tonight a Lake I man is on life support at the Karl Huesner Memorial Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit after he was shot multiple times. The street was crowded with children and adults on Thursday night, but the fun ended abruptly when two men pulled up on the resident and fired indiscriminately. News Five’s Andrea Polanco reports.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Thirty nine year old Jessim Gladden is tonight fighting for his life at the KHMH after he was gunned down on Flamboyant Street shortly after eight last night.

Elida Bonell: Mother of shooting victim

“Right now he’s serious and ih critical because deh say that everything damaged inside from the bullets that ih get. Ih don’t speak to anybody, ih nuh recognize nobody.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, he’s in a coma?”

Elida Bonell

Elida Bonell

“He’s in coma.”

Andrea Polanco

“I understand he took a surgery last night as well.”

Elida Bonell

“Yes he took a surgery last night yes to see what damage the bullet has done to the kidney.”

Andrea Polanco

“Did the doctors tell you what his chances of survival are?”

Elida Bonell

“They said that well, that the emm we could expect anything, we expect anything.”

With an estimated five to six shots fired, Gladden was hit in the shoulder, back and cheek; another bullet penetrated the house of seventy two year old Alvine Hemsley:

Voice of Alvine Hemsley, Resident Flamboyant Street

“Well when the shooting I was sitting down out here suh after the first shot fired, I run and come een side right so afta everything done pass and the police deh come somebody say that wah hole deh pahn my house. But I nuh mi di notice gone notice last night bout no hole or nothing like that. But when dis mawning I seh when I get up I wah look si if any hole come eena my house and then when I wake up dis mawning as I wake I gone look, I si wah small hole outside. Well I neva si nothing round outside but when I come een side now wah big hole deh een side weh the bullet come through. I have the bullet right yah eena my hand weh I di wait fi the police fi come, come get if fah mi.”

Andrea Polanco

“Suh Miss Hemsley if you mi deh eena your house ih possible that you could ah mi get injured as well?”

Voice of: Alvine Hemsley

“Well I could ah mi get injured yes. Bullet dah nuh fi one person dah fi everybody. Ah could ah mi get injured cause little that I thought that this bullet get inna my house.”

Harrington Gray, a senior citizen of the area, says he heard the shots last night but when he got out there Gladden was already injured:

Harrington Gray, Resident of Flamboyant

“Well as I mi gwein guh tek mi bath I hear five gun shot and I know normally when gun shot happen round yah most ah the time somebody wudda get hurt. Suh yuh know as senior citizens most ah we, mi neighbor dah back deh dah ole lady dah back deh most ah wi dah run out. I si deh children di scream I could ah mi only pray that none ah deh neva get hurt yuh nuh. Suh when one ah di shout, ‘dah Jack-P, dah Jack-P’. When I get out yah I yuh know ih grieve mi heart fu si ah pahn the ground down deh yuh know.”

Harrington Gray

Andrea Polanco

“Ih mi di bleed?”

Harrington Gray

“Yeah ih done get shot, the young man deh done gone bout deh business whosoever they were yuh know ah nuh know.”

Gladden was sitting at this last night socializing with friends when two men appeared through this alley and fired shots, dispersing the crowd. Gladden’s blood, the bucket he was sitting on and his slippers left scattered on the street last night.  But although the street was very crowded, no one wants to say what they saw:

Voice of: Alvine Hemsley

Darrien Banks

“Crowd out yah, pickney di play, basket ball yah, pickney di run pahn the street di play game and running and things like that. Suh out yah crowded. Yuh had some people over there; yuh had some ova dis next side, out yah crowded, crowded. Su h I say to wah young man weh come sit down side ah me. ‘I nuh wah sit down out yah cause anytime when yuh si crowd like this something happen’ because when out yah mi crowded dah right yah deh mi kill my grandson right. Suh he had two children with ah and he seh ‘mek I move’ and when he move and I mek fi get up the same time the shot deh fire. I nuh si who fire because everybody di run fi deh life because out yah crowded.”

Elida Bonell

“Nobody tell mi who they saw hit, shoot him yuh know, nobody. Nobody see they said like because when this thing happened, it happen so fast everybody run, everybody had to run so they couldn’t see who it was.”

Voice of: Giovanna Johnson, Niece

“I know people si di bwai weh gone du dah shooting last night because lotta people mi di out deh. And deh only, dah person just ride past everybody and gone straight to my uncle.”

Gladden is the brother of the infamous Darrien Banks, but his family says that they are not the same kind of person:

Elida Bonell

“Jessim dah nuh wah bwai like dat, he dah wah bwai weh emm out fi shoot or do anything like to people.”

Voice of: Giovanna Johnson

“Well weh I could say right, my uncle Jessim he nuh stand like my other uncle because he nuh own ah gun and he nuh like  trouble  nobody.”

Gladden’s family says he was injured before in separate shooting and stabbing incidents. Reporting for News Five, I am Andrea Polanco.

Bonell, the victim’s mother, called us late this evening to say that her son’s condition has worsened as she was informed that both his kidneys have collapsed.