North Preston minister says violence rooted in unemployment, gun access

Rev. Wallace Smith says something needs to be done about gun violence in North Preston, N.S.

Police say a second vehicle has been seized as part of a murder investigation in the Halifax area.

Narico Downey, 23, was gunned down outside his grandmother’s home in North Preston Sunday night.

RCMP responded to the 911 call on Downey Road just before 9 p.m. When they arrived on the scene, police say Downey was already being rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds.

Downey later died of his injuries and police seized the vehicle that rushed him to the hospital Sunday night.

RCMP seized a second vehicle yesterday in connection with the shooting.

“To look and see if there was any evidence in it, to have it processed, and that’s in custody now,” confirms Const. Tammy Lobb.

Lobb wouldn’t comment on the vehicle’s owner, where it was seized or whether there are any suspects in the case.

Investigators spent most of Monday searching the 1188 Downey Road home for evidence and going door-to-door trying to find witnesses to the shooting. While the police tape has been taken down from the crime scene, many North Preston residents remain shaken by the city’s ninth homicide.

“It would in anybody’s community, and this community is no different,” says area resident Martina Izzard. “We’re all upset about this, the shootings and killings going on in our community.”

Rev. Wallace Smith says his Sunday morning began with an Olympic triumph after Nova Scotia boxer Custio Clayton earned Canada's first Olympic boxing victory in eight years. But he says his day finished in hospital with Downey’s tragic death.

“We got the news Custio won his first fight, it was announced in church,” says Smith, the minister at St. Thomas Baptist Church. “Sunday night was chaotic with 100 people at the hospital.”

Wallace says he attributes the city’s violence to two key issues – youth unemployment and access to handguns.

“Where are these guns coming from? We don’t have them here in the community. And they’re young…14 and 15-year-olds with guns,” says Wallace. “These men that are causing the problems, most of them don’t work. That, from my point of view, is where the situation starts at.”

Izzard agrees that unemployment among young men is the root cause of violence in North Preston.

“Have you seen any programs that are going on in the three black communities for youth?” she asks.

A half dozen community leaders met in a closed door session yesterday and developed a training proposal they want to present to the government and one local construction worker, who asked not to be identified, says he wants to work with youth in North Preston and help them find jobs.

Downeywill be buried Tuesday in a cemetery located across the road from his grandmother’s home, where he was gunned down on the weekend.

“She lost her husband just one year ago, on those same steps,” says Smith of Downey’s grandmother. “He had a heart attack coming down the stairs. There are a lot of memories for her on that doorstep.”

Anyone with information on the incident is being asked to contact police.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Rick Grant