While most of you were having breakfast, gunshots were already ringing out on the city’s south side. 22 year old Delroy Matura was shot multiple times on Neal’s Pen Road at 7:30. Tonight, he is barely clinging to life. Jacqueline Godwin spoke to his family.
Jacqueline Godwin,
We understand that he was shot like fourteen times.
Andrea Figueroa, Sister of shooting victim
“Yes he was shot 14 times, every where. I am not so sure because he doesn’t live with we and he was walking with a girl and they some boy came out of an alley and just shoot him up.”
Voice of Eyewitness,
“They didn’t say anything, they just rode through the alley and the boy pushed his hand in his pocket and hauled out a gun and from then corruption start.”
That young woman, who did not wish to appear on camera, because she says she has been threatened, told us that they were having a general conversation in this alley off Neal’s Pen Road when her attention was drawn to two suspicious looking young men on one bicycle.
Voice of Eyewitness,
“Two boys were double riding on a bike and after that I asked why they were riding around like police, why they were patrolling like police. He said not to worry about them and I saw the boy ride through the alley, pushed his hand in his pocket, and hauled out a chrome 9 and after that he pushed me on the ground and when he pushed me on the ground I just heard bang bang bang. He told me not to get up and so I didn’t lift up my head and after that he jumped on top of me and when he jumped on top of me I just heard bang bang bang and after that he ran and when he run, my mind just told me to get up and run and I ran.”
The blood trail leads into this neighbour’s yard where Delroy Matura managed to run to get help but there were only children standing outside the house. The mother of one of the little girls who have also lost a brother to the gun violence says she was awakened by the sound of gunshots and then heard her child screaming, “please stop, please stop.”
Voice of Neighbour,
“I was sleeping when I heard all the gunshots ring off and from there I ran out because I heard my daughter bawl out because she was on the verandah brushing her teeth. All the kids were on the verandah and when I heard the gunshots and heard my daughter scream out I ran out and when I ran out I saw my cousin’s boyfriend running into our yard and he ran to me and told me to hold him because her feels like he would drop. I asked him how many shots he got and he said he thinks he got about three shots in his chest.”
Voice of Eyewitness,
“When I run, I saw him under a house and I ran towards him and I asked him if he was alright and he says he was alright. He got up and walked and everything and after that a taxi man came and took him.”
Delroy Matura better known as Fang was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital but his prognosis is not good.
Andrea Figueroa,
“The doctor says all the bullets are still in him and they are just working on saving his life right now. The doctors say he still has the bullets, all of it in his whole body and I think they said he lost one of his lungs or something. We don’t really know and we won’t know nothing until 48 hours. So we have to just sit down here and wait to hear what they will say.”
7NEWS understands that the police are now looking for their prime suspects but have been unable to locate Delon Sherwan and a person known only as Kyle aka Biggy Smalls.
Jacqueline Godwin,
We know that Delroy has been in trouble before with the law. Recently as a matter of fact he was released from jail. Do you believe this has to do with something he may have done in the past?
Andrea Figueroa,
“I don’t know nothing. I don’t know what to say about that.”
Voice of next door neighbour,
“When I heard the gunshot and I heard my daughter scream out, I felt like my daughter or one of my niece get shot or my son. So I just jumped up and I run out but when I run out they were on the verandah. Nothing didn’t happen to none of them, luckily.”
Reporting for 7NEWS, Jacqueline Godwin
So far police have not made any arrests.
