[UPDATED] Wrong place, wrong time: Santa Cruz man killed, 3 wounded at party

Simply because he attended a friend's going away-party, a Santa Cruz man was killed and three others wounded when gunmen attacked the limers.

Police said Fitzgerald Alfred, 53, was liming with friends in the yard of a house on Blazney Road, Upper Santa Cruz, at around 10 pm on Monday when three gunmen walked into the yard from the street and shot at them.

Nearby residents heard the gunshots and took Alfred and the wounded men to hospital, where Alfred was declared dead at around 10.45 pm.

The wounded men are two 26-year-olds and a 22-year-old. They remained warded in stable condition up to Tuesday morning.

Investigators suspect Alfred was not the intended target of the gunmen.

Police from the Special Evidence Recovery Unit (SERU) found five spent 9 mm shells and 11 spent 7.62 shells.

Newsday visited and spoke with Alfred's uncle Albert Alfred, who was not clear on the details of what happened, but had heard the gunshots from his home nearby.

"I was in my bed lying down and I heard shots ringing, I think a bullet even fell on the roof of my house.

"The next thing I know, a guy from the neighbourhood came knocking on my door and he said, 'They just killed Tom Jones' – everybody know him as 'Tom Jones.'

"I'll tell you something, last night I didn't sleep at all. All how I tried to get some rest, I couldn't do it."

The elder Alfred said his nephew was a bartender at the Hilton Trinidad, and had two daughters, eight and 23.

He said his nephew's murder was difficult to accept as they were close and would visit almost every day, as their houses were in walking distance of each other.

"He has a habit of leaving the house and with his TV on, and he'll take it back off whenever he gets home – but he never came back home. So just now I have to walk over to his house and take it off.

"I tried to go to his house to take off the television just now, but when I reached in the yard I had to turn back around. It was too much for me."

Another relative, who asked not to be named, said he was saddened by Alfred's murder, and angry with his killers.

He said the area was becoming increasingly dangerous.

"I don't know what's wrong with them (criminals). Like they have no head, or the head they have on their shoulders, they have nothing in it.

"They have no respect. They don't care who they kill. It could have a child there and they kill the child – they don't care what they do.

Another resident said she was concerned about the influx of criminals in the community.

"You always hear guns being fired up there. But as someone told me, there's only a matter of time for people.

"They come out to spoil the place/ Here is a good place for people and families."

Contacted for comment, North Eastern Division police said they were aware of the rresidents' concerns of the residents and were taking steps to root out criminals.

One officer said an enhanced police presence in typical "high-risk" communities was forcing criminals to find other areas.

"In the last two weeks we have instituted patrols in the areas where we have seen a lot of violence, and we're supported by officers from the Inter Agency Task Force, the Guard and Emergency Branch and the Emergency Response Patrol.

"This area in Santa Cruz is what we call an outlier, in that it's not typically defined as a hot spot community. But other areas in Santa Cruz, like Pipiol, that were dangerous, have since died down, so the criminals are playing cat-and-mouse with the police."

The officer said the police would continue to work with different units and go on using a grid patrol system, in which different officers would have overlapping boundaries to enhance their presence within a given time.

"I can say it is working – but like all things we need some time to see the results."

As of Tuesday afternoon, the murder toll for the year to date was 136, compared to 126 for the same period last year.