Baby shot while sucking mother’s breast

The scent of gun powder penetrated the air yesterday on Pink Street in Dunkirk, east Kingston, after gunmen opened fire on a group of persons inside the Michael Manley Market.

Seven persons turned up at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) with gunshot wounds including a one-year-old boy. One of the injured men, known only as Tyson, succumbed to his injuries shortly after. According to police reports, about 12:50 p.m., a group of persons were inside the market making purchases at a cookshop, when a black car drove up. Men with high-powered weapons alighted from the vehicle and fired at the group. When the smoke cleared, seven persons including the infant were observed suffering from gunshot wounds.

As detectives processed the scene, persons spoke in hushed tones. Weighing heavily on their minds was the injured baby who they said was nursing on his mother’s breast when he was struck by a bullet.

“From dem reach outta KPH, dem just move with the baby fast because he was bleeding a lot from his belly. Him mother look like she get shot in her hand. At first she never know she get shot, enuh, is we tell her. She was breastfeeding when it happen. She a walk up the road and her eyes white the way she panic. We say to her say she get shot and after that dem carry her go hospital. Even when the baby get shot and she get shot, he was still on her breast. Not even baby dem nah spare, enuh,” a resident told the news team.

Another man said he watched in horror as the victims writhed in pain from the bullets.

“It come like the shot dem bun the people dem. Mi feel it for them. From dem take up Tyson mi know him dead because his marrow was running out from him on the ground,” he said.

“When mi hear di shot dem, a mi bredda mi run go look see if him lay down there. Thankfully him just get shot in his hand,” the brother of one of the victims said.

Another woman who said she was walking towards her business place, ran for cover as the bullets flew. She said she went into panic mode and ran for about 10 minutes away from the incident.

“I just couldn’t stop running. I ran into someone else business and the way mi frighten, all when dem a give me water to calm mi down, mi couldn’t calm. Mi frighten but at di same time, relived and a give thanks say mi alive,” she said.