BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AS the celebratory activities for the 2009/2010 National Carnival came to an end last evening (Jan. 2), a shot rang out just after mid-night from amidst a crowd in downtown Basseterre wounding one man on his upper right arm.
SKNVibes learnt that shortly after mid-night (Jan. 3) a fight broke out between two groups of young men from St. Paul’s and Cayon Villages at the junction of Fort and Central Streets, where a shot was fired and bottles and other objects were thrown by both warring factions, resulting in injuries to three men.
Kimbal Bennett of Willet’s Project, St. Paul’s Village was shot in his upper right arm. He was taken to the Joseph N France General Hospital, where this media house learnt that the bullet had passed through his arm without any bone damage and he was treated and subsequently discharged.
And while Deshawn Leader of St. Paul’s Village escaped the battle with a wound to his left hand, Levi Smith Jnr. of Cayon Village was not so fortunate.
One eyewitness told SKNVibes that Smith got involved in the fracas after seeing one of his friends was being beaten by a group of men. “He went not to fight but to part the fight and the group of young men from St. Paul’s turned on him. He was badly beaten and stabbed in the back, and his face was swollen beyond recognition,” the eyewitness said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this morning, SKNVibes received information that Smith is hospitalised and one man from St. Paul’s Village was apprehended and is assisting police with their investigations.
This has been the third shooting incident in the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis in as many days since the break of the New Year.
On New Year’s morn, shortly after 6:00, 26-year-old Keithon Stanley of Cole Hill was killed execution-style within a building in Craddock Road, Charlestown, Nevis. Some 15 hours later, another Nevisian, Bevon Richards of Cotton Ground, was shot in the neck and is warded in stable condition at the Alexandra Hospital.
