Tonight we begin with the cruel killing of yet another minor. 17-year-old Camron Hernandez was heading to the roadside this morning to catch a bus when gunshots rang out and he was hit. His friends tried desperately to save his life, but he succumbed hours later. The residents of Mahogany Heights are now asking police to step up their presence before more young men are murdered. The Commissioner of Police answered their pleas and held a meeting to decide the way forward. Courtney Menzies headed to the community today and has this story.
17-year-old Cameron Hernandez is the tenth minor who has lost his life to gun violence this year. He was walking on this picado road in Mahogany Heights when he was fatally shot around 8am.
His friends called for help and another resident, Michael Smith, drove Hernandez to the Western Regional Hospital. Smith said the victim was conscious on the 16 mile drive but died sometime later in the day.
Voice of: Michael Smith, Drove Victim To Hospital
"The next two guys who help bring him through the shortcut, we were talking to him and he says he was tired, says he didn't want to die yet. We reach him to the hospital before he died. I really feel bad, because I know the young man, he is not a trouble man and he have respect. I know his parents and his grandmother. Since I lived here, I saw he growing up. I don't know him as a bad boy. I don't really know what transpired."
"I hate how the youths are dropping, innocent, not even start life yet, not a kid yet and involve in this murder thing."
Hernandez is the second young man to be murdered in Mahogany Heights this month.
The first was his neighbour 18-year-old Ethan Thompson. With the rise in violence, the ComPol visited the community and told our colleagues at PlusTV that this shooting seemed to be a result of friends turned enemies.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Our investigation so far revealed that Camron was walking out to the highway when he was ambushed by a lone gun man who fired shots at him causing the fatal injury. I must say that we have that suspect in custody already and he should be charged hopefully by tomorrow."
"We believe it's an inter-rivalry, because from what we have been made to understand the suspect and the victim knew each other well, they were hanging out together last night in one area and so we don't know what went wrong between them."
But the ComPol's main motive for visiting was to meet with senior officers to strategize how they would increase police presence in the community, something the residents pleaded for.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We must say that over the past few weeks we have seen the intensification of gang violence in Mahogany Heights and it have reached the stage where we believe that as much as we are stretched so thin with human resources, that the need is now there for us to increase our presence in Mahogany heights and to put in place a more structured police sub-formation. We must establish a sub-formation and we are going to increase the number of police officers in Mahogany Heights by two, right now we have 11, we will take the number to 22 and that will be able to facilitate having a team that conduct patrols, they will be given as vehicle as well to patrol Mahogany Heights and La Democracia Village. We will also have special branch, we will have CIB and a compliment of police services in Mahogany Heights."
