Arima man killed in late-night ambush

AN­NA LISA PAUL

Se­nior Re­porter

Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the mur­der of Rick­el Bai­ley, who was am­bushed and shot while dri­ving through Ari­ma on Sat­ur­day night.

Bai­ley, of Pin­to Road, was at­tacked around 10.25 pm as he drove his sil­ver Hyundai Tuc­son along Olton Road. When he turned on­to Bran­don Bai­ley Cres­cent, a grey Nis­san Ti­i­da parked near­by re­port­ed­ly be­gan fol­low­ing him.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve a gun­man ex­it­ed the Ti­i­da and be­gan shoot­ing at Bai­ley’s ve­hi­cle. As the SUV re­versed, the at­tack­er con­tin­ued fir­ing while pur­su­ing him on foot. Bai­ley then aban­doned the ve­hi­cle and ran through a near­by va­cant lot. The gun­man re­turned to the Ti­i­da and es­caped.

More than 40 shots were re­port­ed­ly fired. Po­lice re­cov­ered 47 spent shells at the scene, one of which bore the mark­ing "TTR 15."

Res­i­dents who heard the gun­fire lat­er found Bai­ley wound­ed and rushed him to the Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal, where he died at 11.55 pm while un­der­go­ing treat­ment.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.