BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – POLICE are investigating a shooting incident that occurred on Thursday evening (Apr. 3) in St. Paul’s whilst the Charles E. Mills Secondary School’s Victory Motorcade was passing through that village.
The Charles E. Mills Secondary School was recently crowned TDC Inter-School Athletics Champions for the 21st time and was celebrating the victory with an islandwide motorcade.
According to eyewitness account, at about 6:15 p.m., the motorcade had entered St. Paul’s Village from the west along the Island’s Main Road, where “many excited children were waiting to cheer their friends, parents waiting to see their children and a community willing to accept the athletes, no matter where they hail from”.
One St. Paul’s resident claimed that when the motorcade was in the vicinity of Shamar’s Bakery, stones and bottles were thrown at onlookers from a white car and other vehicles that were at the helm of the procession.
This, the resident said, resulted in the onlookers reciprocating which led to a police officer who accompanied the motorcade taking a certain action.
“The officer, who accompanied the motorcade, without identifying himself as an officer, without a verbal warning, fired blanks into the unsuspecting crowd. While this was happening, the same individuals who had been throwing stones held two young ladies and beat them.
“The officer did nothing to prevent this nor did any of the other officers, of which were four. The officer fired over 25 blank rounds and he and another officer continued to aim the weapons at the crowd for about 15 minutes,” the resident added.
The resident also claimed that on arrival of more police officers at the scene, they spoke with some individuals in the motorcade but did not do the same with anyone from the community.
According to the resident, while some officers were dispersing the crowd, others redirected the motorcade and other traffic to the “back road of St. Paul’s”, where a shot was fired.
“An officer from our army force took his side weapon and shot a young guy in his left calf then left the victim on the ground bleeding to continue along with the motorcade,” the resident said.
The resident alleged that the police disregarded some individuals who were trying to render assistance to the young man who was shot and a “Sergeant pushed the youth’s grandmother in her chest as she tried to her grandson, leaving her crying and inconsolable”.
It was also alleged that offers to take the young man to the hospital were rejected by the police.
“Thankfully,” the resident said, “there was an off-duty EMT worker close by to offer her help, and after stabilising the youth he was finally carried to the hospital by the same car that the police had previously refused.”
The resident also claimed that the police stayed for a short while “to continue to antagonise the other youth of the area”, and “I don’t know what protocol there is for officers in this situation. But what happened this evening in St. Paul’s could not…should not be accepted”.
When contacted on Friday (Apr. 4), Police Press and Public Relations Officers Inspector Lyndon David confirmed that that an incident did occur during the motorcade in St. Paul’s and that someone was indeed shot. He however did not provide the name of the victim.
This morning (Apr. 6), Inspector David followed up with a press release which reads: “Police are investigating an incident which occurred in St. Paul Village on last Thursday where unruly persons disrupted the Charles E. Mills Secondary School's Victory Celebration. Charles E. Mills Secondary School won the Inter -School Championship.
The fracas left several other persons including police officers injured, and a number of vehicles damaged. The athletes and other school officials had already passed and were not involved in the incident.”
The release added that anyone who has any information pertaining to this incident is asked to call the St. Paul Police Station at 465-6281 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477 (TIPS).
In an effort to get the school’s perspective of this incident, SKNVibes tried contacting the Principal but was told that she would not offer a comment and that the Chief Education Officer was the most appropriate individual to do so on behalf of the Ministry of Education.
Efforts to contact the Chief Education Officer were futile but a personnel of the Education Ministry, under condition of anonymity, stated that the Ministry was aware of the incident and that none of the students or teachers in the motorcade had suffered injuries.
The personnel also stated that no member of the school was involved in the fracas, and that three vehicles had joined the motorcade and the occupants were the individuals engaged in the incident.
This media house learnt that the Leader of the People’s Action Movement and Parliamentary Representative of Constituency Number Five, the Hon. Shawn Richards, was in the celebratory motorcade. However, efforts to get a comment from him were also futile.
