The communities of The Ivy and New Orleans, St Michael, recently erupted in gunfire within days of each other, one resulting in the death of a man and the injury of another.
Street Beat revisited the shaken communities to gauge what residents thought of the turbulence that engulfed their neighbourhoods.
On Monday, dub artist Irvin Fatman Weekes was killed after being caught in the crossfire following a shooting in New Orleans. His friend, Andrew Londy Springer witnessed the death and spoke about violence in his neighbourhood.
“They killed my friend . . . it needs to cease or there will be more deaths. It was at my yard now but next time it may be somebody else’s yard. We have to get together,” he said.
Springer said he moved to New Orleans from St Lucy 20 years ago and made the area his home. He said it was not a bad place in general but there were some bad elements making things terrible for everyone.
“I don’t fear but I want my patrons to be well taken care of; where they can come, drink a drink and say they had a good time at Londy’s. This is the first truly bad experience I’ve had here in the 15 years since I opened,” he said.
Steven Wickham said he was still comfortable being a New Orleans resident despite what happened but added the same could not be said for everyone there. He said, while the police kept a presence in the area, they could not be everywhere all the time.
“The police patrol every day and there is more than one police outpost but there is a lot of foolishness going on in New Orleans and they can’t be there 24/7. Because of all this, some people are afraid to pass through the Orleans but it is a good place overall and I love where I live,” he said, adding it was usually people outside the community who caused trouble.
A pair of siblings, who requested anonymity, also spoke about how the incidents had affected them.
“We are not pleased. the Orleans people does get the bad end every day but we don’t do nobody nothing but that’s how it looks. It is people who come in; if it was one of our people, we would have already had them lock up,” the man said.
He said Fatman helped to raise a number of youth in New Orleans and was an innocent man.
“He never had a noise with nobody; he just come and sit down and get catch in a crossfire. We left him there living and as soon as I get home I hear he get kill,” he said.
His sister said she was tired of the “foolishness” and kept her daughter either away at relatives or off the streets of New Orleans, adding there were some places one could not go after dark.
There were also two shooting incidents in The Ivy this week and residents there are equally concerned.
On Sunday an unknown gunman fired a bullet into a house and this was followed on Monday by a bottle-throwing incident between two feuding groups.
Then, on Tuesday night, 35-year-old Christopher Branker, was shot in the right arm.
Winfield Skeete called for an increased police presence by having an outpost in place. He said he no longer felt safe.
“I don’t really feel secure in a sense as one minute you here peaceful then another you can see men shooting at each other. I thought I was dreaming. When I first came here 15 years ago it was quiet but now? Mekking sport! You could be walking the road with your grandmother and they still shooting,” he said.
Curtis Hunte, however, disagreed. He said the police were vigilant enough so no outpost was necessary and The Ivy was as safe as anywhere else. Despite this, he admitted the recent shootings were “nonsense”.
“What’s going on is nonsense, especially after so many years of The Ivy trying to pull itself from the label of a trouble area,” he said.
Yvette Hurdle owns Yvette’s Hideaway, a bar in area. She said she wanted to see some of the perpetrators in jail.
“All of these youngsters need locking up; they are doing a lot of stupidness. I can’t feel good; they are making it bad for business because all now I want to hold a lime but I don’t know if anybody will come,” she said.