By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

TERRIE Nairn, known affectionately as “Yardy”, was steps from his front door, waiting for a ride to work, when gunfire tore through his neighbourhood and changed everything.

The 54-year-old, a former bus driver turned security guard, was caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting last Monday night on Whitfield Road in Mason’s Addition. He was one of four men shot in front of a residence just after 9pm, but the only one who didn’t make it out alive.

Police said gunmen in a white and grey Kia jeep pulled up and opened fire on a group of men gathered outside. The victims — aged 19, 24, 29, and Nairn, 54 — were all rushed to the hospital. Nairn clung to life for several days before succumbing to his injuries. The others were last listed in stable condition.

Nairn’s family and friends are shattered. They believe he wasn’t the target, just an innocent man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“He was just waiting on the ride to go to work at the Ministry of Environment because sometimes I will drop him, sometimes the lady over here will drop him,” said Stacy, his long-time neighbour and his cousin’s girlfriend, as she pointed to the bloodstained spot where he fell.

“He was hell bent on that,” she said, recalling how excited Nairn had been about celebrating his 55th birthday this month. “He was just talking you know. He was going to go by him cousins them and go have some drinks but it didn’t end up like that.”

Stacy said the family had been praying for a miracle, but feared the worst from the start “because it didn’t look good.”

Now, in the aftermath, there is only grief, disbelief, and anger.

“It didn’t have to happen regardless of the situation but it did. I’m just sorry that he got caught up in that and he did not deserve that,” she said.

A close friend, who asked not to be named, was blunt in his frustration. “He really was a nice person. I like him. That’s dumb and stupid and careless,” he said.

Nairn leaves behind a daughter.