Double shooting in West Bay

By Brent Fuller, brent@cfp.ky

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One dead, police hunt suspect

One man was killed and another wounded in an overnight Friday shooting in West Bay.

Gun shots were reported in the street outside Kelly’s Bar and the laundromat on Birch Tree Hill Drive just off Town Hall Road around midnight. Witnesses at the scene said it appeared the man who was killed was chased down and shot in the street.

Officers review the scene of the crime. Photo: Brent Fuller

The dead man was identified as Mark Jefferson, 23, of West Bay.

The injured man was taken to hospital with a bullet wound to his arm. He was expected to survive.

No arrests in the shooting were immediately reported by police.

Investigating officers believed the dispute began in the street corner, and may not have had anything to do with the bar or the nearby laundromat. Residents in the area said the street corner is a popular late–night hang out.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call West Bay Police Station at 949–3999 and ask for Superintendent Marlon Bodden or Detective–Sergeant Lauriston Burton.

There has been trouble at that particular West Bay street corner within the past few months.

On 4 April, a 24–year–old man was shot in the same area of Birch Tree Hill Road and ran to police officers, who were there on routine patrol, for help. He ended up being driven to hospital by one of the officers and did survive.

This weekend’s killing is the sixth in the Cayman Islands so far this year. The murder rate for 2008 has far outpaced anything the islands have seen in the past several years.