CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – SONIA GRANT, survivor of the Cotton Ground shooting incident in which 28-year-old Morella Webbe lost her life, has provided some details about what transpired on that fateful early Monday morning (Apr. 17).
According to Nevis Pages, Grant was interviewed by a local NGO called Foundation for Social Concerns that issued a press release on Thursday (Apr. 27) in which Grant recounted her horrific experience.
Grant reportedly said that on the previous day of the incident, she and Webbe had contemplated going to the beach but instead decided to attend a bingo game at a local restaurant.
She stated that Webbe had driven a relative’s vehicle to and from the bingo game, and when they were close to their Cotton Ground home they heard the sound of shots being fired, which she (Grant) thought were firecrackers.
“I thought it was fireworks. Morella said, ‘We are getting shoot…we dead. We are being shoot at…my children.’ She said, ‘Can you get out of the car and call people?’ My hands were already shot…I struggled to loosen the seat belt. Eventually, God helped me and the door opened.”
Grant reportedly told Foundation for Social Concerns that she was able to call someone before losing conscientiousness.
She also told the NGO that contrary to media reports, Webbe did not give anyone a lift and that she was the only passenger in the vehicle.
According to a police report, the incident occurred at about 3:45 a.m. and initial investigations revealed that Webbe and Grant were shot by an unknown assailant or assailants while sitting in a parked car in the area.
It added that both women had received gunshot injuries and were taken to the Alexandra Hospital for treatment, but Webbe died at the medical institution.
Morella Webbe’s death was the third homicide to have been committed in Cotton Ground for this year.
The first was that of Leon Gumbs, whose partly decomposed body with a bullet wound was discovered in his Cotton Ground home on Sunday, January 29; while the second victim was 23-year-old Randell Chapman of Rawlins Village, who was killed execution-style in broad daylight by two masked gunmen in the presence of witnesses while viewing a cricket match at the Cotton Ground Playfield on Sunday, May 26.
Shariff Williams (25) of Colquolouns Housing Project and 21-year-old Elvis Lawrence of Cotton Ground were the fourth and fifth homicide victims. Both of them were shot in the vicinity of a bar in Cotton Ground on Tuesday, April 26. Lawrence reportedly died at the scene of the crime, while Williams was pronounced dead at the Alexandra Hospital.
The five deaths on Nevis have taken to nine the number of homicides committed in the twin-island Federation for this year.
