Bullets rain on Road Side Bar at Diamond

Gregory “Woody” Abraham, also known as “Pecker,” was an honest man who worked hard; but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time on the night of Saturday, October 14.

Abraham was shot on the left side of his stomach at around 9 p.m. at the Road Side Bar in Diamond. He was one of eight persons wounded when gunmen opened fire at the popular establishment, which opened two months ago.

But while the seven other wounded persons who were taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) were treated and are warded in stable condition, Abraham was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where he died yesterday.

Reynold Soleyn told SEARCHLIGHT that he considers Abraham his son, having raised him from the age of two years. He said the 33-year-old father of one, who has a baby on the way, was a good man, who didn’t deserve to die like he did.

“What can I say? Soleyn asked, while standing outside the ICU on Monday.

“I just saddened for him because I am not going to tell you he is a good person when he’s not; he is a wonderful person. He live in a little home by me and he don’t give me no trouble and he don’t give his mother no trouble and she love him very much and always care about him.”

Soleyn said Abraham’s death has saddened and shocked the family. He said Abraham was a tradesman, who worked odd jobs when he could not get construction work, as he did not want to remain idle. At the time of his death, he was employed as a van conductor.

The van he worked on had just dropped him off at the shop and according to Soleyn, about three minutes after, the shooting that ended his life started.

“The crime situation is out of control and getting worse and you can see this every year,” said Soleyn, who added that he is not going to blame the fact that people have turned from God, but rather the lack of stiff enough penalties for crime.

“…God know who is for him and not for him, but we need to put things in place to prevent crime and to be tough on crime. Crime will happen, but we need to be tough on it,” stressed Soleyn.

He said murders are on the rise and he praises the initiative of the police to offer EC$20,000 for information on the mass shooting.

“It is a good initiative, as we need to do anything possible to ease up the crime situation…,” Soleyn commented, adding that the number of unsolved murders here is troubling.

He said the family is going to bury Abraham and, “get closer as a family and do our best.”

Abraham was struck with what police think was a hollow point bullet.

Over 40 spent shells were recovered from the scene of the biggest mass shooting ever in the country, which took the number of homicides here for 2017 to 35.  

A police source told SEARCHLIGHT that Abraham and the seven other wounded persons were caught in a hail of bullets that they believe were intended for Richard “Shrek” McFee, who escaped unhurt.

Mcfee shot to notoriety in 2016, after he and Martin “Jah-son” James were charged in relation to an incident at the Fair Hall Housing Scheme that took place on October 7, 2016, in which 10-month-old baby Mozarie Lee of Fair Hall and Mozarie’s parents, Mozart Lee and Shelly-Ann Durham, were shot.

Mozarie died, but his parents survived. McFee and James were freed after a no case submission was upheld at the Serious Offences Court last

April. 

McFee was, however, sent to prison for 15 months for possession of 30 rounds of .380 ammunition.

He was recently released and was said to be among patrons at the Road Side Bar when the masked bandits opened fire.