POLICE were called into Leopold Street on Monday morning after individuals from two gangs traded bullets in what detectives are describing as a turf war. The police recovered evidence which suggested that a sawn off shot-gun and a 9mm pistol were used during the trading of bullets between the two sides.

The Guyana Chronicle was informed that while no injuries or deaths were recorded following yesterday’s incident, several young men from the community have since gone into hiding.

The community is located a stone’s throw away from the Brickdam Police Station which houses the headquarters of ‘A’ Division. Yesterday’s shooting, according to persons close to the investigation, dates back to a shooting incident which took place on January 17th where a woman was shot to her back. That woman is said to be the mother of a man who heads a gang in Leopold Street.

This publication was told that during the shooting in January, the woman was injured by bullets which came from the barrel of a gun belonging to another gang which was having a friction with the injured woman’s son gang. Now, a resident of the community is said to be working for the leader of that same gang and that is not sitting well with persons in the community of Leopold Street. They are contending that the man cannot be living in the community and working for another gang. Added to that, he is being regarded as a sellout and a threat, as he is now working for the head of the same gang whose operatives attacked the village gang back in January.

The head of the Leopold gang, based on what the Guyana Chronicle was told, instructed the resident who is working for the outside gang to get out of the community or cease working for that outside faction. Those calls and demands were ignored by the villager and that is where the friction reportedly stemmed from on Monday.

Operatives of the village gang reportedly pounced on a location where the operative for the outside gang was with his cohorts, and the exchange of gunfire erupted. This publication learnt that following the shooting earlier this year, the leader of the outside gang and the leader of the Leopold Street-based gang came together and a settlement was arrived at for the gunshot injury the mother of the Leopold Street gang leader sustained. Because of that settlement, the police were unable to prosecute the matter as the witnesses to the shooting, as well as the woman who was shot, refused to provide statements in the matter which would have led to the arrest and charging of a number of persons.

The names of the persons involved in the previous shooting are again arising in this latest shooting incident. Reliable sources close to the investigation, also indicated to this publication that the brother of the Leopold Street gang member who is in prison in a neighbouring country, vowed, since the last shooting incident that when he is released from jail and returns home, that he will avenge his mother’s shooting.

The community of Leopold Street is considered one of the trouble areas in Georgetown. It is also a community where several illegal activities are said to be taking place daily and is used as a safe haven for persons who commit offences in and around the city and then retreat to the community.