A case of art imitating life

Jip · 15-07-2009 12:11pm #1

An interesting article considering the character Jamie Hector played

Baby shower for The Wire actor Jamie Hector ends in deadly gun battle

Jamie Hector had thrown a party in New York to celebrate his wife's pregnancy.

By Tom Leonard in New York
Tuesday July 14 2009
A teenager was killed and two men injured on Sunday when a gun battle broke out at a baby shower hosted by a star of the television crime drama The Wire.

Jamie Hector, who plays the ruthless young drug baron Marlo Stanfield in the series, had thrown a party in New York to celebrate his wife's pregnancy when an apparent gatecrasher exchanged nearly 50 shots with guests.

The assailant then reportedly followed one of his injured targets to hospital and fired at him again.

Police who went to the scene in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, at around 1.20am found at least 46 shell casings in the street.

Two guns were recovered but nobody was arrested.

A police source told the New York Daily News: "What a gun battle. They have been watching too much TV." Linton Williams, 17, died at the scene.

Hector, 33, a Brooklyn native, was at the party for some time but it was not clear whether he was still there when the shooting started.

Lisa Bruce, a neighbour, told the Daily News she heard gunshots "exploding like firecrackers".

Looking out of a window, she saw a victim, covered in blood and hiding in bushes.

"He was shouting, trying to tell somebody that he needed help," she said.

The Wire, set in Baltimore, is famous for its gritty realism and for using a generally little-known cast whose members appear at home in their roles.

The show famously casts non-professional actors in some minor roles, although Hector, who reportedly also teaches martial arts and drama to children, is not one of them.

© telegraph.co.uk