Witness receives death threat after fatal Dartmouth shooting

Police after investigating a fatal shooting in the Primrose Street and Pinecrest Drive area of Dartmouth.

Fear is rising steadily in a Dartmouth neighbourhood after a witness to events leading up to a fatal shooting received a death threat Wednesday morning.

He says the victim of the fatal shooting - 24-year-old Raymond Floyd Peters - had been in his apartment late Monday afternoon with a friend and used his phone.

He says the men left his apartment and Peters walked into a hail of bullets.

Police responded to reports of an altercation in the area of Primrose Street and Pinecrest Drive around 5:30 p.m. Monday.

They say it appears a fight started between a group of men in the backyard of a home in the area and Peters was shot several times in the chest.

He managed to run to a home on nearby Jackson Road, where he was found by police.

Peters was then rushed to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, where he passed away from his injuries Tuesday afternoon.

Police say Peters was known to police for years and the man whom he visited earlier in the afternoon says he received a death threat by phone Wednesday morning.

The latest incident has Mayor Mike Savage calling for a renewed effort to fight violent crime in the Halifax area.

He says he is looking at programs such as Chicago Ceasefire, which emphasizes negotiated peace between rival gangs.

“We’re studying it now and there seems to be a lot of evidence to indicate that this is something that could work and I think that there are other initiatives in the community,” he says.

Area residents are also frustrated by violent crime in the north end Dartmouth neighbourhood.

“I think that most people that are down-to-earth good people, and don’t get involved in that kind of stuff, there’s an element around here and you can’t stop that,” says one neighbour.

“And, even more, when it’s at 5:20 in the afternoon, then there’s people outside,” says Halifax Regional Police Const. Pierre Bourdages. “You’re talking about a busy residential neighbourhood with people everywhere. We’re talking about kids, families.”

Police say forensic analysis will allow them to determine where both the victim and the shooter, or shooters, were standing

No arrests have been made but investigators are looking for a suspect believed to have fled the scene after the shooting.

He is described as a black man in his mid-twenties. He is roughly five-foot-eight with a medium build and wore a navy blue hoodie and black pants at the time of the shooting.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact police at 490-5020.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw