Sunday, April 18, 2021
PHA statement
THE Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) has clarified that the National Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) response to the mass shooting on Thursday was executed in line with mass casualty response requirements.
“During an interview on [a local television] show, an allegation was made by a female being interviewed that NEMS neglected to provide assistance to a victim who appeared to be alive when they left the scene,” a statement issued on Sunday noted.
“The following steps as required by National Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) were followed, a scene size up was conducted and back up ambulances were requested.
“Triage took place immediately on arrival of the EMTs to determine viability and order of treatment and transport. The first arriving team comprised two EMTs: one went to assess the female and child and the other went to assess the male victims in the car.
“All of the males were pulseless. One had agonal gasps which is not true breathing but a brainstem reflex that occurs in cardiac arrest.
“The female and the child displayed vital signs and were transported to hospital. The six males were pronounced dead at the scene. The EMS team that was dispatched to the scene of the mass shooting was debriefed prior to being released from work.”
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
GRIEF stricken family members say they want answers after their loved ones were ambushed and “senselessly” killed during a brazen shooting at the Jerome Avenue and Chesapeake Road intersection on Thursday afternoon.
The deceased include Renardo Bastian, also known as “Crack Teeth”, Travis Cooper, Maurice Pinder, Kendal Lord, Delano Smith, and Dequant Brown, according to relatives and close friends.
The car in which the men were shot was riddled with bullets after they were approached by four gunmen who were said to be dressed all in black and armed with high powered weapons and handguns. The killing came shortly after the men had been released from police custody for firearm possession.
A woman and two-year-old girl were also critically injured in the gun attack, but are said, although critical, are in stable condition. Police suspect it was a gang related attack.
The men's deaths marked the country’s deadliest shooting in recent times, according to police. It has also pushed the nation’s murder count to 39 for the year, according to this newspaper’s records.
Relatives of the murdered victims and members of the Kemp Road community were distraught and inconsolable when The Tribune visited the area on Friday morning. Some were screaming in anger at police, who were also heavily present in the community.
The Tribune was told that all of the victims were friends and grew up in the area.
Ricardo McKenzie, cousin of Renardo Bastian, recalled how he watched him take his last breath at the scene. He said his last words to him and others were “don’t let me die.”
However, Mr McKenzie claimed when they tried to get medical assistance for the wounded man, they were denied help.
“His last words was ‘don’t let him die. I was on the scene...It’s sad that it has to come to this and the family is very hurt on the situation also because police officers allowed the situation to happen and told the ambulance not to assist while he was still living and breathing,” he claimed.
“The family is really hurt and we are calling on the commissioner to look into his officer because this is totally disrespectful to family members.”
Renardo’s father, Alfred Bastian also said he wants answers concerning his son’s death.
Mr Bastian said he was shocked when he heard his son—a father-of -four—was shot because he believed him to still be in police custody.
“When I heard the shots, I didn’t think it would’ve been him until a guy come on a bike and say, ‘boy they just shoot up Crack Teeth in one car’ and I said, ‘how that could be because Crack lock up?’” he said.
“How could that be and he lock up and so how he get through there? But…when I got there, my son was living and some guys try to take my son out the car but the police them run them and they holler ‘let him dead,’” he alleged.
Renardo is Mr Bastian’s third son to have lost his life to gun violence. His second son, Alfred Bastian Jr, aka “Halfman”, died last December after he was fatally wounded during a shooting incident outside a home in Cooper’s Terrace.
His eldest son, Kino Alfred Kelly Bastian was killed in a drive by shooting in the Kemp Road area in 2017.
“I gone tell you the truth, it hurts,” Mr Bastian said of his sons’ deaths.
“Right now, I'm just trying to hold my head above water and take it as it is,” Mr Bastian said. “The last one was my financial support because I haven’t worked for years and anything I wanted or needed, my sons used to do for me and they really used to take care of me. “All – Ally, Keno and Crack was the last one. We was very, very close. I just have my daughter.”
On Friday, The Tribune also spoke to Laverne Cartwright, mother of victim Travis Cooper, who was visibly distraught during this newspaper’s visit.
Mrs Cartwright lost two sons in the span of hours in what she described as a mother’s worst nightmare.
Her older son, who was sick in hospital, died late Wednesday night, several hours before his younger brother was fatally killed on Thursday.
“I really don’t know how to say what sort of day I had because it feel as if I wasn’t even here and to lose two children. It was hard and I don’t know how many mothers could go through something like this,’’ she said with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I don’t know how they live to see another day, but they were my children and I wouldn’t want this for any other mother.”
She said she was in her yard when the shots rang out, only to later find out her son had been wounded.
Kendal Lord Sr, father of murdered victim Kendal Lord, said he was also at his home at the time of the shooting. He said the last time he saw his son was Tuesday morning, a day before he was taken into police custody.
Mr Lord said while his son’s death was a shock, he is trying to cope with the news as best as he can.
“You just have to move on,” he said. “You can’t turn back the hands of time, so you just take it one day at a time and cope with the grief and just move on.”
Kendal leaves behind three children, two daughters and one son.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call police at 502-9929, 502-9935, 502-9942, or 502-9952. Tips can also be made to Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477).