Bar customer held gunshot victim as he died
A witness to this week’s double gun murder in a busy bar last night relived the moment he cradled a dying victim in his arms.
The expatriate worker said he tried to comfort one of the men as he lay on the floor of the Robin Hood in Hamilton.
The US citizen said: “I tried to save that one boy’s life. I was holding his head, talking to him before the cops got here.”
He admitted: “I got upset when he passed. I got a son that age. I tried to do the best I could.”
The man added: “It’s sad and it’s sickening. It shouldn’t be that way here. It’s a beautiful place. Enjoy it. Enjoy your life.”
The man said it was “pandemonium” after gunmen opened fire in the Richmond Road bar and restaurant on Tuesday at about 6pm.
The attack came as families dined and regulars enjoyed a drink.
But the expatriate and another customer – who both asked not to be named – said they would not be frightened away and were determined to support the bar and restaurant.
The other man, who was warned by the American man to duck before one of the gunmen opened fire, admitted: “I just need to be around people, especially after that experience.
“It’s not good to be alone. Not right now.”
Stephen Corbishley, who stepped down as Police Commissioner earlier this month, branded the shootings on Tuesday evening at the Robin Hood Pub “utterly shocking and evil acts”.
He said the solutions “lie deeper than law enforcement”.
“Starting point is why a child can grow up to become a gang member and pull a trigger with no thought to the life of another human being. Only then will long term solutions be both realised as well as achieved.”
He added: “This is not a political debate, this is about all public, voluntary and third sector leaders coming together alongside the community voices from those who understand. The primary role for all is the protection of life. The wider role is to shift change the pathway that some young Black men find themselves following often with no choice; and it starts as a child not as an adult.”
Mr Corbishley said medicine had shifted to focus on prevention than just cure“ and called gang violence ”a community health problem“ requiring early intervention – meaning ”less people are being buried and more (young Black men) have access to better routes and opportunities in life“.
He saw both of the fatally wounded men, Micah Davis, 22, who was celebrating his birthday, and Ayinde Eve, 27, in the aftermath of the shooting at about 6pm on Tuesday.
Just before the attack, he had gone out to the terrace at the front of the bar for a cigarette. He was told to duck as shots rang out.
Police said more than 20 rounds were fired by the passenger and rider of a motorcycle during the attack.
Two other people were injured – an off-duty police officer, and a relative of one of the victims.
The man went back into the bar after the gunfire stopped.
“I saw them die right in front of my face,” he said.
The other regular, originally from Baltimore, Maryland, said he had seen gun violence in his home town.
He added: “When you live in an area like that, you know to look around. It’s a habit. You look at who’s doing what.”
He said he had an uneasy feeling as he watched a man dressed in black and with a helmet on walk into the bar.
He explained: “I knew something was wrong. Usually you take your helmet off. There was something strange going on.”
He said he shouted a warning to a waitress standing nearby as the man approached the bar.
The man added: “I told the girl to brace. I said ‘here it comes’. Then it was shooting. Boom, boom. It sounded like a war going on.
“I heard claps of fire coming off the office building. There were two of them shooting.”
He said the two gunmen rode off on the motorcycle “calmly” – but left behind a scene of chaos.
The man added: “People were screaming, glasses breaking and chairs flipping, guys laying on the floor.”
He said he had stayed in his seat after the gunfire started to avoid drawing attention to himself.
He explained: “You move fast, they’ll shoot at you.”
But he added after the shootings he had “jumped up, walked in, and shouted 'is anyone hurt bad?’”
The two men were among about ten people in the Robin Hood – down on the number that would normally be socialising.
The American man said there would usually have been 25 to 30 people in the pub – as there had been on the night of the attack.
Paul King, the Robin Hood’s owner, was alone at the bar.
He said: “We’re just trying to keep hope.”
The expatriate worker said he came to the bar every day for food and to socialise and that he had arrived at about 5.30pm on Tuesday.
He said: “It makes me feel sad. Maybe where I live, I could understand it. It really hurts Bermuda to have this going on.”
He said he had known Mr King for 20 years.
The man said: “I told him, I ain’t going to leave you like that. It’s not going to stop me.
“Nobody should let this dictate how they do whatever they do. You can’t let it.”
The man branded the attack as “an orchestrated assassination”.
He added: “We were all just here having a couple of drinks, getting something to eat and then going home.”
