Bermuda's murder rate has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to a rapid rise in shootings — as evidenced yesterday by three separate gun incidents. But those firing the bullets and those killed or hurt are rarely strangers to one another. Using court records and newspaper archives, Sam Strangeways joins the dots between some of the men locked in deadly gang warfare and reveals a catalogue of hard-to-swallow facts about their often short, often brutal lives.

Teenager Kenwandee Robinson gave a statement to Police in November 2000, after he was accused of a gang attack on another man.

"You learn from your mistakes," the 19-year-old told the interviewing officers. "I promise that I will never be involved in any gang involvement again in life."

Did Robinson learn from his mistakes and stick to his pledge? Almost certainly not.

He may have stayed on the right side of the law but less than a decade later, the father-of-one was dead at the age of 27 — fatally shot by two men on a motorcycle as he hung out with friends in St. Monica's Road, Pembroke. Police later named him as a known gang member.

His death on May 22, 2009 appeared to furiously reignite a long-running battle between two gangs whose names now roll off the tongue with ease for most in Bermuda: Parkside and 42.

There have been ten gun murders since, most believed to be connected to animosity between the two sides or involving members of less prolific gangs, such as Somerset's charmingly named MOB (Money Over Bitches) or St. George's East End Crew. It's impossible to know if Robinson meant what he said to Police but it's perhaps no wonder that he failed to extricate himself from gang life.

Growing up on St. Monica's Road, the so-called heartland of 42's territory, he would have been part of an extended network of friends and neighbours intimately linked with the group and immersed in a culture of crime.

A relatively small number of young men from the underprivileged area, many of them brothers, cousins or lifelong buddies, appear time and time again in Bermuda's courts — as do their counterparts a stone's throw away in Parkside's equally deprived domain.

Court papers seen by The Royal Gazette from the 2000 assault case involving Robinson show that the tangled associations, violent disputes and bitter rivalries behind the current "gang warfare" are nothing new — only the weapons of choice have changed.

The names of those alleged to have been involved in the attack in 2000 and in numerous other violent crimes in the last decade are all too familiar — because so many have since been killed or have survived at least one shooting.

Another man accused, along with Robinson, of the attack on O'Shane Eugene Darrell is also now dead. Father-of-three Perry Puckerin was fatally shot on January 3 this year, aged 34.

He and Robinson — known as "Wheels" — were initially charged with the attempted murder of Darrell, along with three others, including Puckerin's brother Michael and their friend, Michael (Mikey) Adams.

Adams, 26, also took a bullet on May 22, 2009. He was shot in the chest, the bullet lodging just two inches from his heart. He survived and his mother revealed how he cradled his dying best friend Kenwandee in his arms.

Back in 2000, the five defendants were alleged to be from the "42nd Street gang" and were accused of surrounding the victim, kicking and beating him with sticks, before leaving him with "terrible injuries" in a pool of blood in Joells Alley.

Perry Puckerin was alleged to have asked Darrell if he was the person who "sliced Shaki" — a reference to Shaki Minors, yet another recent gunfire survivor, who was then still a schoolboy.

The court documents show that Magistrate William Francis dismissed the charges against four of the five men, concluding there was no evidence they tried to kill Darrell.

The only one convicted of any crime was unemployed Kofi Dill, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and was jailed for two years.

He told Police the victim "had something to do with the stabbing" of two of his friends. Dill had a history of violence and drug dealing and, after being released from prison, he killed a man, in a separate case.

Assistant Justice Archibald Warner described an upsurge in gang violence at Dill's Supreme Court hearing in March 2003 for the Darrell assault. "The mayhem caused by this behaviour must be stamped out," he said.

Seven years later, it hasn't been — as the families of Robinson, Puckerin and numerous other young black men killed or injured by gunfire in Bermuda know all too well.

Robinson's statements to Police, given under caution and without his lawyer present, were never tested before a court.

But they give some insight into the life of a young man brought up in an environment where using violence to settle scores with enemies and gain respect from peers is the norm.

He said in his first statement he rode his bike up to Darrell as he lay on the ground and gave him a kick in the side, before telling the attackers to stop because "we don't want to hurt him or anything". "I got back on my bike. I rode over his leg and left. That's it."

In his second statement, Robinson said he kicked Darrell because he "sliced my brethren [Shaki Minors] up".

Robinson asked one of the officers to read the statement back to him, prompting a question about whether he could read. "Yeah, I could read," he replied, "but I ain't the best."

Police gang expert Sergeant Alex Rollin described Robinson and Adams as members of 42 during a court case in May this year. In 2004, a magistrate described Adams as "a real, real menace" who was constantly in trouble, when he admitted traffic offences and violently resisting arrest.

Perry Puckerin's family, of Footbridge Lane, say he was not involved in gang activity but had lost friends to gun violence.

Puckerin had a string of convictions from his younger days — beginning with bike theft, aged 17, and stealing a cheque from his own father at 18, through to possession of crack cocaine and cannabis intended for supply in 1999 and stabbing his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend in the chest in 2002.

He admitted all of the above offences, along with other crimes including breaking and entering, forgery, being involved in a group attack on a man which left the victim with cigarette burns to his face, neck and hands and beating up a 17-year-old boy when he was 20.

Like Puckerin, two others killed in the past year had close ties to 42nd Street. Robinson's friend Kumi Harford was shot dead on December 5 on St. Monica's Road and Shane Minors was gunned down 12 days later, outside his home on Friswells Hill. Murder trials are pending in both cases.

Both of the deceased had been before the courts but neither were habitual offenders.

Kumi Harford got an absolute discharge for a December 2002 confrontation with Police on Court Street. One of his co-defendants was his brother Jakai Harford and the other was Mikey Adams.

Earlier that year, Kumi was fined $500 and banned from owning a dog for a year for failing to provide his injured dog with care.

Shane Minors — brother of Shaki — was cleared of possession of $33,000 worth of cannabis with intent to supply after a Supreme Court trial in 2007. The single parent said after his acquittal: "I'm going to give my daughter a big kiss."

Both men were killed aged 30, leaving a dependent child behind, and both had younger brothers with violent pasts who are believed to be heavily involved with the 42 crew.

The criminal history of Jakai Harford and Shaki Minors, both still in their twenties, goes back at least a decade and makes for unsavoury reading. Their Facebook pages, meanwhile, are awash with references to "42".

Aged just 15, Shaki was expelled from school after fracturing a fellow student's jaw in two places — an assault for which he was bound over in Magistrates' Court. As recently as September 2008, he admitted carrying a machete for "protection".

Jakai — shot twice in the last three years — admitted affray, violently resisting arrest and using offensive words in the 2002 case involving his older brother.

But he was already committing far more serious offences. In 2004, he and Shaki and a third man admitted their part in the torture in January 2001 of Dwayne Trott in a cellar at Jakai's house on Mission Lane, Pembroke.

During his ordeal, Trott was chopped with a machete, beaten with a piece of two-by-four until it broke, had plastic bags burned over both legs, had dogs released on his feet and was attacked by his own brother, Andre Trott.

Portions of his stomach and intestine had to be removed and he needed three operations to save his life.

The prosecutor in the case said Jakai, who was sentenced to four years in jail, jumped on Trott's stomach and uttered the "remorseless" words: "I saw it in your eyes. I thought on that one I broke you."

Trott said Shaki — then aged 16 — found a cigarette, lit it, slapped him in the face and burned his hand with the cigarette three times, as well as urinating on him.

Sending Shaki to prison for three years, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves said he had an "atrocious record of violent crimes".

Andre Trott never faced charges in connection with the attack but is now serving an eight-year prison sentence in the States for driving the getaway car in a New Jersey fatal shooting. Police there describe him as a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang.

The ringleader in the Dwayne Trott case was Antoine Anderson — later convicted and jailed for life for the execution-style shooting of Aquil Richardson on Boxing Day 2007.

Jakai — who shares a sister with Anderson — was shot in the shoulder in Camp Hill, Southampton, the day before Richardson was murdered.

In September 2005, Jakai was due to stand trial for allegedly causing grievous bodily harm, which he denied. That case was thrown out when the male victim failed to show up to give evidence.

In March this year, 27-year-old Jakai was shot in the face outside his Mission Lane home — yards from where Kumi was killed.

Former Devonshire Cougars' star Shaki Minors was attacked by a group of men brandishing baseball bats after a football match at the Southampton Oval in 2003.

Last November, he was shot, along with his girlfriend, outside Southside Cinema — a month before his older brother was murdered. Two men have been charged with attempted murder.

Another man named by Sgt. Rollin as a 42 member was Daniel Cox. He is the cousin of Cervio Cox, who was recently sentenced to seven years in prison for being an accomplice to a triple shooting on Court Street allegedly perpetrated by 42 members the day after Kenwandee Robinson was killed.

The profile picture on Daniel Cox's Facebook page is a photo montage of Robinson and fellow murder victims Kumi Harford and Perry Puckerin above the title: 42 Angels.

Cervio Cox's lawyer claimed it was Daniel who was the getaway driver in the May 2009 shooting on Court Street. The injured victims in that case — Raymond Burgess Sr., Raymond Burgess Jr. and Jdun Thompson — are all connected to the Island's most recent, and perhaps most notorious murder victim, Raymond Troy (Yankee) Rawlins.

Rawlins's chequered past as a drug dealer and apparent kingpin in the local gang scene has been well-documented in recent weeks, since he was fatally shot at Spinning Wheel nightclub on Court Street on August 9. The 47-year-old was said to have been affiliated with Parkside.

Earlier this month, Anthony Swan, 22, was found guilty of shooting at Rawlins on Court Street on December 16 last year.

Det. Con Cheryl Beach, of the Serious Crime Unit, told Swan's trial she had heard Yankee was suspected of supplying guns to young men.

The two Burgess men shot in May 2009 are Yankee's father and brother, respectively, and Thompson referred to Mr. Burgess Sr. as "Uncle Ray" during Cervio Cox's Supreme Court trial.

Thompson, who was shot in the foot, is said by prosecutors to be associated with Parkside and offshoot gang Middletown. He wrote on his Facebook page on March 14: "Who ever want$ 2 c Me MTown is Were I'll be Til De Day i DIE."

The 17-year-old — who became a father in February and is known as "Juice" — appears to be part of a new breed of youths in the Court Street area enmeshed in a delinquent lifestyle.

He has already spent time at the Co-Ed facility, where he is accused of assaulting two prison officers. He denies the charge and was due to stand trial at Magistrates' Court recently. He failed to appear and a warrant was issued.

Jdun's mother is also the mother of Kimwandae Walker's two children. Walker was the 35-year-old gunned down in front of his young son and daughter on Good Friday this year. No one has been charged in connection with the killing.

In July 2004, Walker was cleared of a string of drug offences after a Supreme Court trial. He had been accused of intending to sell crack, ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis that Police found in his home during a bust the previous year.

But a jury acquitted him of all charges after hearing evidence that the drugs belonged to Police informant and drug dealer Alexander Stevenson.

Walker was charged with three gun offences in October 2004: possessing a firearm, having a firearm in a public place and intending to use the firearm to endanger the life of a man.

But the Crown nullified the charges when the alleged victim refused to testify at a preliminary inquiry, claiming he'd been threatened.

Walker and Rawlins are not believed to have been fully-fledged members of Parkside but they were well-known to the much younger men said to form the core of the gang.

Garry (Fingas) Cann, fatally shot on December 15 at the age of 22 outside his girlfriend's home in Somerset, has been described as one such key figure.

Police have never publicly confirmed Cann's connection to Parkside and some believe his death was nothing to do with the conflict with 42.

But a source told The Royal Gazette that the motocross rider was a member of the gang. Cann's obituary notice described "Yankee" as a special friend and referred to MiddleTown (Garrison) — "garrison" being a word used to describe gang territory.

Other alleged Parkside members are more high-profile, as willing as Thompson to flaunt their allegiances and, more often than not, the inevitable owners of gunshot wounds.

Jah-Lario Samuels Dill, nephew of Yankee Rawlins, ran into a house on The Glebe Road on October 31 last year yelling for help after being shot in the chest.

The 22-year-old — who recently admitted driving while disqualified — was said by his mother to have been deliberately targeted by men out to kill. He wouldn't help Police find the shooters, according to Superintendent Antoine Daniels, due to his "gang-on-gang mentality".

Jah-Lario's elder brother, Jahkiel Samuels, of Loyal Pass, is said to be a Parkside lynchpin who was found guilty in March of leading a gang attack and robbery on a cricket club manager, after taking him hostage in his own car.

The 25-year-old, who has previously done jail time for a football match brawl, recently abandoned an appeal against the gang attack conviction and was sentenced to three years in prison.

In January, when he appeared in court with four others in connection with a New Year's Eve drugs bust at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, shouts of "Parkside, Darkside" were reportedly heard from the group as they left the courtroom.

A decision not to release Samuels — who later admitted knowingly misusing drugs in the hotel — and his co-defendants on Police bail after their arrest has been cited as the reason a festive ceasefire between Parkside and 42 broke down with the murder of Perry Puckerin on January 3.

Members were said to be furious that Jakai Harford was granted Police bail at Christmas after being arrested for possession of cannabis.

There has been little let-up in the shootings since, with seven men killed this year and at least 20 people injured.

One of the most recent non-fatal gun victims was another alleged top Parkside member, Prince Barrington Edness. The 24-year-old was shot — for the second time in two years — three days before Rawlins was killed.

No prizes for guessing if Edness has a criminal record. He broke a policeman's jaw in 2003, when he was 17.

He and the other alleged gang members and affiliates named in this article appear trapped in a never-ending loop of violent crime and tit-for-tat hostilities — with only one or two degrees of separation between each of them, regardless of which "side" they are on.

As other Bermudian men their age wonder which scholarships, university places or well-paid jobs they'll get, the underachievers fixated on getting even with their enemies are diligently wiping one another out.

Each knows their time could soon be up. One member of 42 wrote on his Facebook page on April 13: "Rest in peace to all my fallen soljahs/miss u guys love u guys i no u in a better place/so watch over us/soon be with u in the pearly gates of heaven."

The gangbangers probably don't have too much time to ponder the long-term future. They have a far more pressing question on their minds: whose turn is it to die next?