Drug war fears grow with Spryfield shooting

A shooting ina Halifax suburb Thursday morning isfuelling speculationthata turf war has erupted between rival drug dealers.

A barrage of shots was fired at parked car and a house on Guildwood Crescent, a quiet residential streetin Spryfield, just before 8 a.m., witnesses told CBC News.

"If you were hammering a nail it would be just 'bang, bang, bang.' That's what it sounded like,"said a woman who refused to give her name.

Halifax Regional Police said there were people in the home at the time, but no one was wounded.

The shooting happened one day after aSpryfield business was firebombed, and a week after a convicted cocaine dealer was shot and killed.

"Investigators believe there may be some connection in relation to some recent events," Const. Jeff Carr said, "and these events are not believed to be random acts."

Police aredevoting extra resources to the areas where the shootings and the firebombing occurred, he added.

Wayne Nicholas Marriott, 21, was gunned down on June 20 as he sat in a parked car near his home in Beechville. He was pronounced deadat the hospital.

Police have issued an arrest warrant forJames Melvin Jr.

Early Wednesday morning, a store owned by Melvin's family, Sprytown Fast Cash on Herring Cove Road,was torched with a homemade firebomb.

The house on Guildwood Crescent was once the home of Marriott's cousin, a convicted drug dealer. B.J. Bremmer, who also goes by B.J. Marriott, is currently in jail.

Several residents who did not want to be named told CBC News they fear a drug war is underway.

Police are not calling it a drug war, but the common thread appears to be violent acts directed at members of the Marriott and Melvin families,who haveprior drug convictions.