Mysterious gunfire baffles police

Gunfire erupted along the lower East Coast and in the Campbellville area, between late Thursday night and early yesterday morning.
Police yesterday said that they were aware of incidents in three lower East Coast villages, but they have been unable to track down the gunmen.
According to Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene, ranks responded to the reports along the East Coast but came up empty handed. Asked about similar occurrences in the city, he said the only report received in the city was from Prashad Nagar, but it turned out to be a car backfiring. “There are no reports of gunshots in the city but last night on the East Coast there were three points where persons said that they heard gunshots but we were never able to track down what it was or who it was,” he explained.

He further said that the city residents might have heard squibs and not gunshots.
A senior police officer told this newspaper that residents in Cummings Lodge, Ogle and Turkeyen called the police numerous times between 2 and 4 o’clock yesterday morning with complaints about gun fire. However, he said, investigating ranks found nothing. There were no reports of injuries or gun-related crimes in those areas during that period, the officer added.

One resident told this newspaper that he heard two sets of gunfire, some of which was rapid. This would have been around 2 am and then again around 4 am. Meanwhile, a Campbellville resident recalled hearing an explosion that sounded like a squib around 10.15 pm on Thursday. But when the explosions continued seconds apart, the resident said, she realised that what she was hearing was gunshots. The woman heard about five gunshots and then silence.

Residents in other sections of Campbellville told Stabroek News that they heard gunshots early Friday morning and one resident reported seeing persons in a car firing shots into the air. It appears that there were two separate sets of gunfire in this area; around 1 am and later around 4 am.