PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

Every night since Jus­tine Davis was mur­dered in L'Anse Mi­tan, Care­nage, gun­shots have rang out in the area af­ter dusk.

Davis, 24, was shot dead on Sun­day, Ju­ly 14, by gun­men who came look­ing for her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend was in­jured in the at­tack but sur­vived the in­juries.

Guardian Me­dia was told the gun­men have since come back cir­cling the area look­ing for him.

They have, on mul­ti­ple oc­ca­sions, re­turned to the house where Davis was killed and opened fire.

"The place here was very qui­et, you could stay here all 10, 11," said a res­i­dent, who did not want to be iden­ti­fied, "but last year around June, we start hear­ing about Ras­ta, Mus­lim and who is ras­ta and who is Mus­lim and who lock­ing the place."

She can trace the spike in vi­o­lence in the area to the mur­ders of Je­lani Warn­er and At­i­ba Warn­er who were mur­dered six weeks apart in June and Ju­ly of last year.

Since then the gang war­fare in the area has in­ten­si­fied with some of the re­cent vic­tims of this war in­clud­ing Davis and Ashar Kir­by, who were killed fol­low­ing a shoot­ing at KFC West­moor­ings last week.

"We used to lime here every night. We drink lit­tle beers play all fours, we play draft," said the res­i­dent.

"Now that kin­da done, now in back here af­ter 7 is a ghost town," said an­oth­er res­i­dent.

"You know how fright­en­ing it is? You ever heard the sound of an AR-15 bussing up? I lie down and like fa­ther God what tak­ing place," said the res­i­dent, who said it was im­pos­si­ble to get used to hear­ing and see­ing those weapons in the com­mu­ni­ty, be­ing bran­dished by young­sters.

Be­cause of the gang vi­o­lence in the area par­ents have ex­pressed con­cerns about bring­ing their chil­dren to a pre-school to the area for fear the chil­dren may wind up in the mid­dle of the gang war.

An­oth­er res­i­dent has found him­self a vic­tim of the cross­fire.

"I end up pick­ing three shot from 250 feet (away) and a youth man, 12 years, end up pick­ing up three shot," said the res­i­dent who had been liv­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty for over 50 years, re­liv­ing a shoot­ing in­ci­dent on May 29.

While he was able to con­tin­ue walk­ing with his in­juries, he said the 12-year-old boy who was hit along­side him was se­vere­ly in­jured and now walks with a slump.

He told Guardian Me­dia that he con­sid­ered him­self "col­lat­er­al dam­age" in a war that he hopes would stop soon­er rather than lat­er.

He is al­so hope­ful that the war will stop in the area so that he could see his daugh­ter get mar­ried and have chil­dren.

"I hope to live to see my grand­chil­dren, I want her to have 10 grand­chil­dren, I tell her that," said the res­i­dent.

He said for­gave the young­sters who shot him, as he re­mem­bered them as young­sters he once coached, and is hope­ful that sport­ing fields which are of­ten left va­cant be­cause of the vi­o­lence are the cat­a­lyst for that peace.

"Time for the shoot­ing to done. Time to bring back the peace how it was long time. Play­ing sports, let we go and fight on the field, on the court, not with the gun," he said.

Guardian Me­dia ap­proached oth­er res­i­dents in the area who were ap­pre­hen­sive about speak­ing for fear they would be tar­get­ed in the fu­ture.