Gang warfare continued in the city today. After a weekend of violence believed to be retaliations between George Street and Ghost Town, there was another shooting this morning. It happened near Mayflower Street - which is the base of the Ghost Town gang.
The victim is 27 year-old Rafael Cruz who has been living in the heart of Mayflower for years. This morning at around 8:00, he went out on an errand to the store for his family. While on his way, he was ambushed at the corner of Vernon Street intersection by 2 gunmen who opened fire on him and sped off.
7News arrived on the scene shortly after:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
10 bullet markers were laid down at the corner of Mayflower and Vernon Streets where this morning's shooting happened.
The chipping of concrete, spots of blood, and bullet indentations into nearby fences were all signs that the investigators looked for to tell the narrative of the attack.
The victim, 27 year-old Raphael Cruz, was already at the KHMH at that time, receiving treatment.
He left his house to go and buy dog food when he was ambushed by gunmen on motorcycles.
Norman Middleton - Father of Shooting Victim
"We have a puppy here and so we sent him to buy some puppy chow and when he was going on his bike on "ghost town" - we were in the shop here and all we heard was about 4-5 shots. We didn't know who got shot until people came and said that they shot my son. When I got out there I saw him on the street."
Mike Rudon, Ch5
"What kind of condition was he in from what you saw?"
Norman Middleton - Father of Shooting Victim
"The condition that he was in was that he wasn't really out yet, he still had his eyes open and he was holding my hand and so."
He didn't manage to tell his family how the attack unfolded, but eyewitnesses told Middleton what they saw.
Norman Middleton - Father of Shooting Victim
"All that I heard was that 2 persons on motorcycle pull up and one of the men came off and fire the shots; one caught him in his belly, I understand one caught him in his back - out of 5 shots. I dont know more or less how many shots he got otherwise."
The location of the attack was very significant and suggested to investigators that this was the continuation of the feuding between Ghost Town and George Street, which started this weekend. Raphael Cruz, according to his father, was not gang affiliated. He would sometimes be friendly with the guys from Ghost Town.
Norman Middleton
"My son is not a gang bang person. When he finish working he comes from work to home. He only keeps around the gang bang persons, he is only their friend. He is not a person that hangs out and seeks to chance people or do anybody anything."
Daniel Ortiz
"Is this a situation that you guys fear on a regular basis being that you live through Ghost Town?"
Norman Middleton
"No, we are not scared of that of living through here because we live through here from when we were born. We are not scared of anybody at all."
Daniel Ortiz
"I mean to be labelled as gang affiliated just because you live in the area."
Norman Middleton
"I don't see how we will be scared of anybody because we don't do anybody anything and nobody supposed to do you anything. But the way I see life is going now you don't have to do anybody anything for them to do you something now. They just want to kill somebody who is in the area to satisfy themselves should in case anyone of the other guys do somebody something outside."
Middleton says that his family has not had any other violent encounters such as this one since 2008 when a Grenade was thrown on Mayflower Street.
Norman Middleton
"More or less we had a bomb thing that one of my son had been caught up in about 7-8 years when a bomb was thrown on Mayflower Street. I don't know if you knew about it. My son got caught in that when he foot was broken up and thing. From that none of my kids get into anything."
Nevertheless, he was recruited for bridge building project on Chetumal Street in which Ghost Town leader Roger Anthony is the supervisor and the contractor who employed men from his neighborhood.
According to contractor CISCO Woods, work continued today - "even though one of their main guys got shot.
This evening, we spoke to his family via telephone, and they told us that the doctors have given him a 50% chance of survival. He's currently on life support after they removed one of his kidneys; the doctors also had to repair damage to his intestines. His family says that the doctors plan to take him back into surgery tomorrow where they will repair more of the internal injuries he's suffered, which includes his liver, which is causing him to bleed internally.
Cruz is the father of 4 children, aged 4 to 8 years.
Email
Print