BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOLLOWING up on the promise made last year by Commissioner of Police Hilroy Brandy, members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force destroyed 31 illegal firearms that were collected from gangs as part of the Peace Initiative.
The illegal firearms were destroyed in the presence of media operatives at Camp Springfield on Monday (Sept. 28).
In a press statement, police noted that before the firearms were destroyed, Commissioner Brandy said; “…once we [did] our investigations, we promised that all the weapons would be destroyed…you are here to witness that all thirty firearms will be destroyed this afternoon, and to assure you that none of the firearms [are] back on our streets.”
The Peace Initiative began in February 2019 and had involved gang members in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Since then, it has realised several significant outcomes, including gang members, some through third parties, relieving themselves of their firearms.
Last year, 30 firearms and a quantity of ammunition were handed over to the police and another firearm was taken into custody this year. Those firearms were reportedly audited by the Forensic Unit and underwent ballistic tests.
According to the police, in addition to the 30 firearms from gang members, 13 illegal firearms were taken off the Federation’s streets through various operations in 2019, making it a total 0f 43 for that year.
“I want to assure the general public [that] since the effort of taking these 30 firearms from the street, we still continue to make sure our streets and our homes are safe from illegal firearms…we have taken seven firearms off the streets so far for this year. Notwithstanding, we are in a pandemic, police are still out searching and doing stop and search [exercises] in order to recover anyone with any illegal firearm,” Commissioner Brandy assured.
