BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (SKNLPCU) – With St. Kitts and Nevis reeling from five murders last week and six to date, the Team Unity coalition government of Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr. Timothy Harris is being accused of having politicized the country crime situation and now reaping the harvest of that action.
Former Prime Minister and now Leader of the Opposition, Dr Denzil L. Douglas says there is need for the entire nation to cooperate to effectively handle the escalating crime situation in St Kitts and Nevis.
“The opposition warned the present government when it was the opposition that its attitude and rhetoric on crime was not going to be helpful on the national development programmes and policies for the government. We tried very desperately to show the (then) opposition when it was basically doing anything to get into power that it had to be careful on the question of crime,” said dr. Douglas to WINNFM.
Dr Douglas said crime is everybody’s business.
“They made the nation believe that the crime situation was as a result of an incompetent government of the day. Today obviously it has been proven to every single person in this country and to our investors and to our developers that the Prime Minister as the Minister of National Security and his government, they don’t have one iota of understanding of the crime situation in the country,” said Dr Douglas, who added that the time has come “for the government to begin to admit that crime is a national issue which therefore must involve not only government officials, the ministers, the policemen, the NGO’s, but of course the opposition, all parliamentarians, must be involved and stop the blaming and the name calling and the finger pointing of those who he said are losers.”
Tuesday, the St. Kitts and Nevis Observer newspaper said that Kittitians and Nevisians “are expressing fear and outrage as bodies continue to pile up in the once quiet communities.”
It reported that the carnage started January 24 with a drive-by shooting after 1pm in McKnight that left 24-year-old Hassan Edwards of New Ponds Site dead and two other men injured.
Three days later on Jan 27 Lanzelle O’loughlin, aka Done Bless, a 25-year-old Cayon man who resided in Molineux, was gunned down in Mansion around 7am.
48 hours after, (Jan 29) Wade “Grammy” Phipps was liming under a tent in front of Ottleys play field on the island main road when a vehicle drove up at a around 7:50pm and pumped several shots into the unsuspecting man. Reports are that Phipps, a resident of Christ Church, was struck four times in the head and twice in other parts of his upper body. The vehicle used for the drive-by was reportedly found in Whites Mountain area the next day.
The next day (Jan 30) the gunplay moved to Nevis. An early morning shooting near the Rams junction was at first thought to be victimless; however a few hours after someone walking through the nearby Bath Cemetery came upon a body.
The victim, reportedly with a gunshot wound to the head, was identified as Asim “Wassie” Parris of Stoney Grove. Parris was one of three men out on bail for the 2008 murder of Leon Westerman.
On Sunday (Jan 31) the body of Devon Percival, 28, of Stapleton Village, was found in Ogees village, after being missing for a few days. Decomposition had begun to set in, as pictures showed a swollen body, indicating he had likely died shortly after he disappeared. An autopsy confirmed death was due to gunshot injuries.
“These latest killings bring the murder toll to 6 thus far this year. By this time last year there were four murders recorded, indicating a 50% increase,” the St. Kitts-Nevis Observer reported.
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