By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A YOUNG teenager was shot dead on Monday night when gunshots rang out in the Soldier Road area.

Police said they are actively investigating the circumstances behind the latest fatal shooting in the capital.

The incident, which occurred on Sumner Street, at the rear of a two-storey property, brought the country’s murder count within seven homicides of 100 according to The Tribune’s records.

The victim, whose identity has been withheld pending official identification by next of kin, was said to have died within moments of being shot, according to Chief Supt Clayton Fernander.

The officer in charge of the Central Detective Unit said that police responded to the sound of gunshots off Soldier Road at about 8.05pm.

“On arrival, they met the lifeless body of a male who appeared to be in his early teens,” the senior officer said.

“At this present time, we don’t know what happened here but as you can see there are a number of houses here in the yard and persons live in the yard. We have officers who are doing door-to-door inquiries to find out what exactly happened.”

“They only heard shots rang off and when they checked, they met the young man who was lying at the rear of this yard with the gunshot wound,” Chief Supt Fernander added.

The CDU head is appealing to residents in the area to assist them in “advancing this investigation”.

“The mother came on the scene. He lived somewhere in the general area so we are speaking to her to find out exactly what she may know or how he got here or who he may have come here to see,” Mr Fernander said.

On Sunday afternoon, police were called to the scene of a murder on Palm Tree Avenue after the victim had been discovered by a relative lying on the ground of his home with gunshot wounds to the body.

Anyone with information on any of these homicides is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

Investigations continue.