Press conference to be held at Camp Springfield today
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEW developments in the Sandy Point shooting incident have surfaced, indicating that members of the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force (SKNDF) had allegedly left Kenrick ‘Ratty’ Rogers to die after shooting him at the foot of Mount Liamuiga in Sandy Point.
Speaking with family members of Rogers, SKNVibes was given a detailed account of what allegedly transpired on Saturday morning (Feb. 12) when he was shot.
“My brother told me that very early Saturday morning he had left our mother’s home to attend his friend’s sheep and farm just below the mountain in Farms, Sandy Point. The sun was not up at that time, and when he was about to release the sheep from their pen he heard a rustling sound in the bushes.
“He said that he became afraid and tried to hide by the shack that they have up there, because he thought somebody had come to steal the sheep or raid the farm and they might have harmed him. However, after a few minutes and not seeing anybody or hearing the rustling sound, he decided to come out of hiding,” the relative said.
The relative said Rogers explained that after he came out of hiding, a group of soldiers emerged from the bushes and told to get down, but as he was about to comply one of them shot him in the leg.
“My brother said he stumbled when the soldier shot him the first time, and as he was falling to the ground the soldier fired another shot and it struck him on the other leg. He said that while on the ground, he took out his cell phone and called a friend.
“He said, ‘I called one of my friends and told him I just get shot…call the ambulance.’ He also told me that he replaced the phone in his pocket and one of the soldiers came over him and asked if he has a phone and he said no. The soldier then took the phone out of his pocket and my brother asked why they shot him when he had not done anything wrong. My brother explained that the soldier said, ‘Hush yoh @##+>x mouth, yoh want a finish dis thing on yoh?’ He said they also asked him who he had called on the phone, but he didn’t tell them that he had called anyone.
“My brother said that in addition to his phone, the soldiers also took a key that he has to my mother’s home and then they left him there bleeding,” the relative said.
Rogers’ mother, Roseanne Eddy, said she was at her Crab Hill, Sandy Point home when she received the message that her son was shot.
“One of Kenny’s friends called and told us that he was shot but we didn’t know at the time who did it. So me and one of my daughters ran out of the house bawling. I was going in the direction of Farms, still bawling, when I saw some armed soldiers, and one of them asked a neighbour why I was bawling like that and he told him that my son was shot. I didn’t bother to stop to say anything because I didn’t know if my son was dead or alive. However, a female friend of Kenny told us that she had called for the ambulance.”
Eddy said that morning she had asked her son where he was going so early, and he told her that he had to go to the farm to attend his friend’s sheep.
“I told him that quite recently police and soldiers have been coming into Sandy Point and harassing many people and it was not safe for him to go out so early. But he insisted that he was going to attend the sheep and he wasn’t afraid because he is not wanted by the law and he has not done anything wrong,” Eddy added.
A male relative said he too received a phone call about his brother’s demise but neither did he know who shot him nor where the incident occurred.
“I was heading for town when I heard that my brother was shot but I didn’t know who did it or where it happened. So I turned back and headed for my mother’s home because there is where he was staying since last month when he came back from St. Thomas. However, when I got there I saw a large crowd of people and they told me he was shot while at the farm.
“This incident occurred before seven o’clock and the ambulance arrived sometime around 10 o’clock. When we got to the farm, my brother was lying on the ground and he had lost a lot of blood. The ambulance took him to the JNF Hospital. And when I visited him later that day, I saw that his right leg was in a cast and the left leg was in bandage and it was still bleeding.
“My brother told me that he didn’t know why the soldiers shot him. He had no firearm, no illegal drugs or weed in his possession; he went to take care of the sheep and the farm and yet they shot him and left him to die. I strongly believe that they left him there to die, but they didn’t know he had already called one of our friends and told him what happened.”
In response to why that was his belief, the brother said, “If the soldiers had found any illegal thing on my brother, or if he had attacked them, as I believe will be their excuse for shooting him, why didn’t they take him into custody? Why did they leave him at the farm when they knew he was wounded and bleeding profusely? Why didn’t they have a police guard at his bedside as they always do when they claim somebody shoot at or attack them? Why is the army silent on this incident? Why after two days the police have not yet taken a statement from my brother or visited my mother or any of us? And why haven’t the police sent out a release as they normally do? These are only some of the questions that we want answers to.”
At about 8:30 last night (Feb. 13), this Media House contacted Rogers who said that a member of the Criminal Investigation Department had visited him on Saturday but he did not take a statement from him and promised to return on the following day. The wounded man claimed that the officer did not turn up as promised.
SKNVibes however learned that a press release was issued by the SKNDF’s Public Affairs Officer, Captain Kayode Sutton, which indicates that a press conference would be held today at Camp Springfield to address the incident.
