For decades, 71-year-old Thomas Hawkins Jr.’s Ray Street home in Marrero has been a safe haven, a place where his children and their friends from the neighborhood gathered to play, where they hung out as teens and where they still met as adults to socialize and tinker on vehicles, according to Hawkins’ daughter and next-door neighbor, Tammy Simmons, 45.
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But the once-warm and relaxed welcome for visitors has been replaced with edge and agitation after gunmen ambushed family members and friends as they repaired a motorcycle in the garage Wednesday night (May 1), killing one man and injuring two others.
“Now, every car that pulls up, we’re all looking, saying ‘Who is that?’” Simmons said of the family’s new-found nervousness.
The Jefferson Parish coroner’s office identified the man fatally wounded as Christopher Davis, 39, of Bridge City. Davis died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to Chief Death Investigator Mark Bone.
“He was a cool guy. He was happy-go-lucky, very respectful,” Simmons said of Davis, a family friend who was known by the nickname “Bootup.”
Simmons’ nephews, ages 33 and 24, were also wounded in the shooting. Both were in stable condition Wednesday, she said.
The shooting occurred about 8:55 p.m. in the 6100 block of Ray Street, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. Simmons’ husband, Darius, 40, had been hanging out with the group of men in Hawkins’ garage as they worked on a purple motorcycle, but he decided to head home.
“I walked to that shed,” Darius Simmons said, pointing to the small structure in his backyard, "and grabbed my cigarettes, and I heard pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.”
Unsure whether he’d just heard fireworks, Simmons walked back towards the garage and noticed acrid gun smoke still hanging in the air.
Two bullets pierced the metal chair where Davis had been sitting. Hit several times, he tried to find cover and navigate the tools and vehicle parts littering the garage floor
“Bootup couldn’t run. He had a bad leg,” Darius Simmons said of his friend’s injury from a car accident a few years ago.
Davis made it only to the garage’s back door where he collapsed near a step, on top of shattered glass. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Someone drove Tammy Simmons’ oldest nephew to West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero. He was suffering from gunshot wounds to his abdomen and legs, she said. He was transferred to University Medical Center in New Orleans, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Simmons’ other nephew suffered gunshot wounds to his legs and ankle. Both men are expected to recover.
Sheriff’s Office investigators have no suspects or a motive in the case. The Hawkins and Simmons families have no idea who shot at the men or why. And that adds to their unease.
The bullets that pocked holes in the garage could have easily found their to the house, inside which sat Simmons’ father and her disabled mother, 67. Neither was injured in the shooting, but the family is aware of how close the couple came to danger.
As the family visits with the injured brothers in the hospital, they’re also mourning with Davis’ relatives.
“He was no angel,” Darius Simmons said of Davis, “but he would give you the shirt off his back.”
Anyone with information about the shooting death of Christopher Davis is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office investigations bureau at 504.364.5300. The public can also call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an indictment.
via nola.comhttps://www.nola.com
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