By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

A 29-year-old man is fighting for his life in hospital today after being shot multiple times in the groin by a “love rival,” The Tribune has learned.

According to police, the victim was standing in front of his residence at Augusta Street around 9.50am on Sunday when he was approached by a man he knows who was in a White Honda Civic.

The suspect shot the victim five times in the groin and once in the upper right thigh before escaping east on Poinciana Drive.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance where he is listed in critical condition.

Police say they have no motive for the crime, however, sources say the two men were arguing over a woman.

Last month, police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said arguments over women are a significant factor in the country’s steadily climbing murder rate.

“Many of the murders that we recorded to date are as a result of arguments. I am ashamed to tell you, arguments over women – females, where young men are feuding over females,” he said.

“Family members are aware of it and they try their best to make the intervention and there’s this pinch-point and men who are best friends argue to the extent that at some point, a gunshot rings out and one falls dead because of jealousy or some jealous rage between two healthy bodied young men who are obviously miscommunicating and are totally confused.”

“As I look at the details around many of these murders,” said Mr Greenslade, “I did not want to believe it, because there’s always the tendency to point to drugs – and, yes, drugs is causing a lot of our problems, but a lot of our problems with our young people stem from these relationships that do not work right. And they’re not even marriage relationships. They are just relationships that don’t seem to go right. It’s a huge problem and we are going to have to do a lot of work around it.”

In other crime news, police removed ammunition and a firearm off the streets of the capital.

According to police, around 12.45pm on Saturday, officers of the RBPF Selective Enforcement Team, acting on information, conducted a search of an abandoned building on Butler’s Alley off Wulff Road, where they uncovered a quantity of ammunition.

A few hours later, around 2am the officers responded to shots fired in the Culmersville area. When they arrived on the scene, the officers saw a suspicious male standing in front of a vehicle.

Police say the suspect ran when he saw the officers. He eluded capture but officers conducted a search of the parked vehicle and uncovered a handgun with a quantity of ammunition.

An intense investigation is being conducted to locate the suspect in this matter.

Active investigations continue.