Police have blamed infighting between factions within a gang as the cause of a shooting on Tuesday which claimed two lives.

Parkside was singled out by Nick Pedro, Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, after gunmen murdered two men at Robin Hood Pub on Richmond Road.

Mr Pedro cited “factions” within the gang, which for more than a decade has been associated with northeast Hamilton.

A source familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed there had been infighting within the gang.

The source added: “There are some rifts going on. There’s definitely a split and there has been for quite a while.”

Police last year highlighted “feuding” in a string of gun crimes in North Hamilton from September 2019 to January 2020.

The attack at the Robin Hood claimed the life of Micah Davis, 22, who was celebrating his birthday when he was shot, as well as 27-year-old Ayinde Eve.

Mr Eve was alleged to be a member of Parkside during the 2011 trial for attempted murder of Jahmel Blakeney and Sanchey Grant.

Mr Eve was known to the courts from a 2010 conviction for obstructing justice when he was 16.

In 2019 he was among five defendants accused of causing grievous bodily harm and depriving a man of his personal liberty after an attack at a Pembroke bar.

Rolfe Commissiong, a former MP for Pembroke South East, said Bermuda’s gangs were the “canary in the coalmine” for the island’s worsening poverty and income inequality.

“There’s a trajectory from the late 1990s to these horrific events of today.

“There has been a societal failure and a political failure to make the fundamental changes to public policy that would make Bermuda a fairer, more equitable place, particularly for Black, working-class Bermudians.”

Mr Commissiong said gangs were a “by-product” of “increased poverty that is concentrated in Black Bermudian households”.

“We didn’t put in place public policy to deal with this, and boys who were 8, 9, 10 years old have grown up to take their place in the ranks of this phenomenon.”

He added: “Because of these social and economic conditions, rampant income inequality and the high cost of living, we’re going to continue to see these outcomes.

“We can’t police our way out of this.”