— 8-Year-Old Girl Shot in Leg

By Licec Bastian
Journal Staff Writer

In less than a week, another juvenile has become a victim of gun violence. An eight-
year-old girl was in hospital this week with injuries to the leg after a gunman,
indiscriminately opened fire on a group of persons in Flamingo Gardens, off
Carmichael Road.
According to preliminary reports from police on Monday, August 28, “The victim,
along with family members, was sitting on the front porch of a residence situated on
India Drive when a male occupant exited a white Japanese vehicle and opened fire on
them, resulting in the child being shot.
“The suspect returned to the vehicle and fled the area, making good his escape.
emergency medical technicians were summoned to the scene and transported the
victim to the hospital, where she remains stable.”
For the past several months, gun violence has wreaked havoc on New Providence.
Just last Thursday a four-year-old boy was shot to the left leg in a triple shooting on
Rupert Dean Lane and Ferguson Street. Two other victims, both 25-year-old males,
received multiple gunshot injuries to the upper body.
They were all transported to hospital where one of the victims, whom police identified
as 25-year-old Dario Dawkins, a resident of Rupert Dean Lane, succumbed to his
injuries.
In late July of 2022, four-year-old Kenton Seymour Jr. died in hospital after he was
shot by stray bullets while with his parents in the area of West and Fleming Streets.
Prime Minister Philip Davis has lamented over the issue of gun violence in the
country and called for the “heinousness of the acts that’s being committed on our
streets” to stop.
The prime minister, earlier this year at the “Violence as a Public Health Issue”
symposium in Trinidad and Tobago, urged United States lawmakers to solve the gun
trafficking issue wreaking havoc on the Caribbean.
“We do not manufacture guns in the Caribbean. We have asked the U.S. government
and U.S.-based gun manufacturers to cooperate with CARICOM member states when

it comes to identifying weapons purchased in the U.S., as a part of a wider effort to
hold weapons dealers and traffickers accountable for the many lives lost to gun
violence each year,” he said.
Back in June, State Minister for Social Services and Urban Development Lisa
Rahming called for a two-week gun amnesty as part of the Urban Renewal and Police
Force’s “Say No To