BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force has seized its 28th illegal firearm for the year, hours after the lifeless body of Hendricks Roberts was found in St. Peters yesterday (June 21).
Assistant Commissioner of Police with responsibility for Crime, Joseph Liburd, said police acted on intelligence to find a .38 revolver concealed in an abandoned house on Lower Market Street at 3:50 p.m.
Three rounds of matching ammunition were also discovered and taken into custody along with the firearm.
Liburd said no one had been arrested for the find.
Just hours earlier, Roberts’ body was found lying on the main dirt road leading to Fountain Estate in St. Peters.
He was pronounced dead by district medial officer Dr. Mervyn Laws, who did not give an apparent cause of death at the time. Police officials indicated that they would be treating the case as a homicide until further details were known.
Should Roberts’ death be ruled a homicide, it would be the Federation’s 19th for the year (including the three suicides on Nevis).
Security forces seized 33 firearms in both 2008 and 2009, and the ACP was confident that the record would be broken this year.
In an earlier interview with SKNVibes, he attributed the results to the vigilance of security forces and the improved relationship between the public and the police.
Liburd also revealed that every seized firearm was tested for ballistics evidence to see if it had been used in any recent shooting crimes.
