Shooting suspects sped through police roadblock, court told
A man accused of masterminding a double shooting sped through a police roadblock set up to catch the culprits, a jury heard.When Jahmel Blakeney, 30, was eventually pulled over by police, the man accused of the shooting, Sanchey Grant, 20, was found hiding in the passenger seat.The jury in the trial of Mr Blakeney and Mr Grant heard about the incident from police motorcyclist Timothy Evelyn, who helped man the roadblock by Double Dip in St David’s around 2am on November 14 2009.It had been set up in the aftermath of a double shooting at Southside Cinema in St David’s around two-and-a-half hours earlier, which left footballer Shaki Minors and his girlfriend Renee Kuchler seriously injured.According to prosecutors, Mr Blakeney spotted Mr Minors at the cinema and masterminded the shooting which was carried out by Mr Grant. It’s alleged to have been a retaliatory attack by Parkside against their rivals 42, of which Mr Minors was an associate.Pc Evelyn said he saw a black Kia Sportage jeep approaching the Double Dip roundabout. A police sergeant signalled, and then shouted, for the driver to stop.Instead of stopping, he said, the vehicle headed onto Kindley Field Road and “accelerated at a high rate of speed west”.Pc Evelyn ran to his motorcycle and gave chase. He told the jury he lost sight of the jeep as it negotiated the first left hand bend along Kindley Field Road but he and another constable later caught up with it and signalled for it to stop. It did so by the BAS kitchen on Kindley Field Road.The driver was Mr Blakeney, who asked why he was being asked to get out of the vehicle. When he did get out, Pc Evelyn realised that “a light skinned slim male was sitting in the front passenger seat, laid back in the seat as the seat was laid back”.According to prosecutor Larissa Burgess, the man on the passenger side was Mr Grant. Both suspects were arrested.The police later found a Beretta pistol on the side of Kindley Field Road.The trial also heard evidence yesterday from three women who witnessed the shooting as they were leaving the cinema with their families.Their witness statements were read to the jury by prosecutor Cindy Clarke.Takisha Rogers, 36, told police she went to see the movie Precious with her two school-age daughters and three of their friends. As the group left the cinema and walked back to their car, Ms Rogers heard three bangs that she thought were pops from a cap gun.When she looked to the right she said: “I saw a man running away from a black parked car. He was running towards me.”At this point, Ms Rogers noticed the driver’s side window of the car was shattered and realised what she heard had been gunshots. She noticed the man continue to run towards the Pizza House restaurant.She described him as between 5ft 7 ins and 5ft 8 ins tall, of medium build, weighing approximately 170-180lbs. She said he wore a dark blue baseball-style hat and dark-blue clothing in a “ganzy” material that she heard making a scratching sound as he ran.“I do not know who it was. He was very well disguised,” she said.“My immediate concern was for my daughters and their friends,” added Ms Rogers, who got in her car and dialled 911. As she did so she saw Mr Minors fall out of the car covered in blood.After she dialled 911 she drove off.Alleisha Lambert, 23, went to see the movie with two female cousins. She also saw the suspect, who she said wore a black jacket with a red mask that covered his entire face except for holes for the eyes. She described how he emerged from a bus stop and walked past her car around five feet away from her with a gun in his hand.She said she could see through the eyeholes in the mask that he had a brown skinned complexion.Ms Lambert explained she became “frightened and scared” at this point. She heard four sounds like fire crackers before she and her cousins sped off in their car. As they did, she saw the same person “walking briskly but normally” towards Pizza House.Lejoy Daniels, 44, went to see the movie with her daughter. As they left, she hard a loud “pap pap” and saw a bright flash 15-20 feet in front of them. She saw the shooter facing the driver’s window of a car, holding the gun with both hands, shooting into the driver’s side from little more than an arm’s length away.“It was not well lit and only took a split second but it happened right in front of me,” she said. She explained it was dimly lit and she could not see the shooter’s face or tell whether the suspect was male or female but remembered they wore a baseball cap.Ms Daniels grabbed her daughter and ran back into the cinema. When they emerged later, she said: “That atmosphere was so unusually calm, really calm; no one was panicking.”Mr Blakeney and Mr Grant deny charges of attempted murder, gun possession and bullet possession and the case continues.