A 24-year-old father of three was surrounded by at least three gunmen yesterday as he sat outside a shop in `Warlock’, East Ruimveldt and riddled with bullets, less than a month after he was freed of a number of charges stemming from an ongoing feud.
Sherwyne Barrow of 50 East La Penitence, Georgetown was lured to the area under the pretext that a peace deal was going to be made so that an ongoing issue between him and several young men from the area would come to an end. Instead his attackers who were unmasked opened fire on him just before 9 am when his back was turned. He sustained seven bullets, most of which exited his body through his chest. He was later pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital.
Two young men were arrested but upset residents insisted that they were not the perpetrators. They claimed that the “police just see them man and pick them up and gone”.
Based on what the media was told Barrow had just returned from taking his eldest child to school. One woman explained that as he sat by the shop, two gunmen came from behind him and opened fire. It would appear that the other one was standing facing Barrow when the gunshots rang out. It would appear that they all fled on foot.
Police said in a statement that at about 0855 hours, Barrow was involved in an argument with two men at Warlock, East Ruimveldt, during which he was shot several times to his body.
The release added that the suspects have not yet been arrested as the investigations continue.
Residents said that the police visited the area sometime after the shooting but no one could say if they managed to retrieve any spent shells. There was evidence that bullets grazed the bridge leading to the shop and the picket fence around it. It would appear that at least one high-power weapon was used in the attack. One resident estimated hearing about 30 shots which he said were rapid.
A man who described Barrow as his friend said that he was standing close to where the man was when he heard multiple gunshots. He ran for cover, he said. “When it done I go back and I see me fren lying down”, he said adding that he could not say if the man was already dead. He said that he is “very very shocked” that something like this could have occurred in broad daylight. “If I didn’t run I woulda get knock too because it was wild gunshots”, he said as he stood in the hospital compound wearing bloodied clothes. He assisted in transporting the wounded Barrow to the hospital. The man said too that it was clear that Barrow was the “direct target”.
Asked if he had any problems with anyone, the man said he did not know. However the man’s girlfriend of almost three years Ashomia Rogers was very vocal as she wept at the hospital while expressing her disbelief that he had died.
Rogers later explained that last June, Barrow and several persons had an issue which ended up in the courts. Last December he had appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on four charges including discharging a loaded firearm with intent to commit murder and armed robbery.
He was accused of discharging a loaded gun and attempting to murder Kellon Hinds on June 13 while robbing him at gunpoint of a gold chain valued $3.6 million. He was also accused of robbing Grainer Hestick at gunpoint of cash and jewellery valued $146,000 on the same day.
Rogers told the media that Barrow was released from jail on April 16 after the two virtual complainants failed to attend court.
She said that she had heard on Tuesday night that there were plans afoot to killed Barrow and when she went to warn him he started to “row and get on bad”. She said that during his outburst, he questioned what was it that “these people want from me”. She said that Barrow even stressed the amount of time he spent in jail for things he did not do.
Rogers said that Barrow later ended up at a football game and she saw him yesterday morning in Warlock. She said that she later left to take her daughter to school and promised to return to assist him to find out about his brother who was detained by police over a bottle-throwing incident while at the football game on Tuesday night.
Moments after leaving, Barrow said she got several phone calls that he had been shot. She said that he was not afraid to walk the streets. “Sherwyne was not afraid. Sherwyne is a brave young man…If he was afraid to died he woulda never deh in Warlock”, she said.
At the scene blood stains were evident on the ground and on a nearby bridge. Scores of relatives lined the street as they openly discussed the incident. At the hospital dozens of relatives and friends arrived as news spread that the man had been shot dead.
