There are also no arrests for the murder of 28 year old Barrington Gentle. It occurred around 9 last night on Courtney Crescent. That is when a brazen gunman ambushed Barrington inside his home. Here’s the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This is Barrington Gentle speaking to 7News in March of 2004 after one of his friends had been killed.
[March 9th, 2004]
Barrington Gentle, Deceased
“We smoke up, we get high, we don’t trouble nobody out there.”
But Barrington is no longer talking because he was executed inside his home last night.
Helen Gentle, Mother of Deceased
“I never think I would have done this. You watch news, you see this the happen, you see mothers di cry, and I never think I would have been this person until now.”
Barrington was standing in front of this refrigerator. He was more than likely getting something out of it when he was ambushed by the gunman. The gunman apparently scaled this fence, jumped on the stairs – to avoid detection – and
surprised Barrington at the door. His girlfriend Ebony Flowers says that one minute they were talking and the next minute she heard gunshots.
Voice of Ebony Flowers, Girlfriend of Deceased
“Me and him were talking and I was combing my hair and thing and he was eating a piece of cake and he walked away from by the bathroom door. I was in the room combing my hair and he was by the entrance and he walked towards the refridge and when he went towards the refrig he opened the refrig. I don’t know if he opened the refrig but he was going towards the refrig and I just heard shots start to lick out and I just dropped on the ground and I went under the bed and when time I heard the shots done I came out and then I saw that the refrig door looked like it had gotten shots and I looked and I saw him on the ground and I didn’t hear talking or nothing from he, I just saw him on the ground lying down and I bawled out and hollered to my mom so they could help me because he didn’t move or nothing when I saw him down there. I just had to bawl out for help. It looked like he got shot in his head and in his back.”
Keith Swift,
You spoke to him just before the shooting, did you hear anyone approach and argue with him?
Voice of Ebony Flowers,
“No, we had the backdoor open and I was combing my hair and he was doing his own thing because like I said he was standing at the entrance and I was in the room combing my hair. He must have been going into the refrigde for something and then the masked man just run upstairs and shots start fire.”
The couple had problems, they’ve broken up 3 times in a year but Ebony says that despite what the streets may be saying, she had nothing to do with his murder.
Voice of Ebony Flowers,
“The last he told his baby mother doesn’t want to take him back
so that means he has to come to me and me and him started to live and he has a little job and thing and I iron his clothes and so for him and he goes to work and I cook for him and different thing. When he comes home in the evenings he doesn’t go nowhere. It is hard right now, I don’t even know what to do. I just have to be strong because right now how it set up, I don’t know.”
Across town I met his mother Helen Gentle who is finding it hard to grapple with the death of her oldest son.
Helen Gentle,
“He is my oldest son, just turned 28 the 31st of May. Not even two months. He left two kids, a boy and a girl, one just turned 5 and the other one will turn 4 October. Just like that dead. Senseless gun violence. It makes no sense.”
Helen gentle says Barrington had his problems in the past but had no enemies.
Helen Gentle,
“Way back yes he used to give problems but he changed his life. He started to work and really did a turnaround. I don’t know him as somebody who had enemies. I don’t know him somebody who had enemies.”
Keith Swift,
What would you want to say to his killer?
Helen Gentle,
“God will judge him. I left everything in God’s hands, God will judge him. He get away from man down here but up there he can’t get away from God.”
No formal link has been made between the weekend’s two murders. Clarence Leslie and Barrington Gentle knew each other but weren’t close friends. There is a possibility the two victims may have been witnesses in criminal trials. When Barrington Gentle spoke to us in 2004 it was following the murder of 27 year old Mark Tingling. Richard White was charged for that murder.
