A cancer patient who was celebrating her 57th birthday was shot in the face late yesterday afternoon during what police said was a domestic altercation in Yellow Elder Gardens.
According to an eyewitness, the woman’s 13-year-old granddaughter was also shot just before 5pm on West Dennis Court.
Her son, Sheldon Burrows, 29, told The Bahama Journal on the scene that he had just arrived at the house of his estranged wife to collect his two-year-old daughter when he got into an altercation with one of her male relatives.
Burrows said the man then got a gun out of the house and came out firing shots at the truck where his mother, Jacqueline Burrows, and five children were waiting for him.
Burrows and eyewitnesses said the man fired at least eight shots, hitting the woman and the girl.
“I feel like killing somebody; that’s how I feel,” he said, throwing a bloody shirt across his shoulder. “But I have to keep my head focused and make sure my mom makes it.”
Burrows claimed he was arguing with his wife because she did not want their daughter to leave with him. He said he wanted the child to go on an outing with his mother and the other children as she was celebrating her birthday.
“She’s so naïve because I’m divorcing her and it’s always a problem when I come for my child,” he said.
During the incident, Burrows was also grazed by a bulled in his left arm.
A neighbour, Takeisha Carter, 29, said after the shots were fired, the woman and children started screaming.
She said Burrows’s mother was crying out, “Don’t let me die.”
Carter said, “I jumped into the truck and carried them to the Grove Police Station and I got police escort from there and carried them straight to the hospital.”
She said when she pulled off in Burrows’s truck the shooter was still shooting randomly.
“It was a little frightening,” said Carter, adding that the woman fell out the white Chevrolet Silverado truck after she was shot.
After taking the woman and children to the hospital, she said she drove the truck back to the scene.
The vehicle’s windows were shattered and parts of it were streaked with blood.
Burrows told The Bahama Journal that he wrestled with the man for a while as he was still holding the gun, but he claimed the shooter later apologized to him for shooting his mother.
He said he wasn’t able to get the gun from the man who eventually ran off.
As neighbours gathered to watch police collect evidence, Inspector Walter Evans told The Bahama Journal that police had captured the suspect and confiscated a shotgun.
“We have a concern within the Royal Bahamas Police Force that issues with regard to resolution conflict are one of the major concerns that we have within our community,” Mr. Evans said.
“We’re saying to persons within our community that if they experience any level of difficulty they ought to seek refuge by all means. The use of firearms is not the way to go because it results in persons being injured. There’s a concern within our communities that family members are being affected. Today is a prime example.”
The shooting came a day after police said they discovered 10 guns in a water heater aboard a vessel at Arawak Cay.
Last night, it was not clear what condition the woman and the girl were in. Carter told the Journal that she also left the other children at the hospital because they were in a state of shock.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
