Thomas MacMillan Photo
Victim’s clothing and “trauma dressing” packaging at the scene.
A young man was killed Tuesday afternoon outside a “hot spot” laundromat.
The shooting occurred on Elm Street shortly before 1 p.m.
Police confirmed an hour later that the victim has died. The 20-year-old’s name was Tyrell Trimble. (His age was incorrectly reported in an earlier version of this story.)
He stumbled across Elm Street after a masked gunman fired at least two shots that hit him, according to Assistant Police Chief Archie Generoso. A Good Samaritan tried to help the victim, according to Generoso.
About 15 people were present when Sgt. Max Joyner showed up at the original scene. Joyner said the victim had a “slight pulse” when he arrived.
One witness told police that the shooter was a passenger in a brown Chevy Astro van with Pennsylvania plates, and that the van was seen headed toward the Hospital of St. Raphael. The van is believed to have been stolen. The van was believed to have been ditched later at Vine Street and Sylvan Avenue in the Hill; police cordoned off the area and the nearby Strong School was placed on lockdown.
Dwight Alderman Frank Douglass (pictured) had just shopped at Stop & Shop and was putting the groceries on the counter of his home on the block, at Orchard and Elm, when he heard “pap-pap-pap-pap-pap-pap.”
“Did you hear that?” he asked his wife.
Then he heard more shots.
Douglass ran outside to see a young man lying unconscious on the ground on Elm Street right by the shopping center’s Precision Wash & Dry Laundromat. The laundromat has been a “hot spot” for trouble, he said.
A man identified as the victim’s brother came outside and starting crying and screaming in horror, Douglass said. He said the brother works at Stop & Shop.
When paramedics arrived and cut off some of the victim’s clothing, Douglass said, he saw that a bullet had entered the left shoulder and exited through the right sides of the victim’s back.
Douglass said he asked bystanders if anyone had seen anything. They all claimed they hadn’t. “Somebody saw something,” he insisted. “If they don’t come forward, it’s like they pulled the trigger.”
People don’t talk to the cops because they’re scared they’ll be the next victim, said Ibrahim Shareef, who said he runs a “holding company” business out of the laundromat.
Shareef disputed Douglass’ characterization of the laundromat as a hot spot for trouble: “He’s lying.” Shareef and others make sure nothing happens there, he claimed. “It’s a violence-free zone.”
“He was a good kid,” a man named Billy T. said of the victim. “I never seen him with an angry bone in his body.”
Trimble had numerous pending criminal charges against him, according to the state judicial website. Charges included resisting arrest, interfering with an officer, violating a protective order, and disorderly conduct.
If it was a "hot spot for trouble", then why wasn't more being done about it?
The cops on duty at Stop and Shop are often texting, or reading somethng...not paying attention to what is around them.