Gavin Whyte was not the victim
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – “THE story that the women from the Village told SKNVibes is filled with lies! Gavin Whyte was not the victim…he was the attacker and the women are trying to protect him. I was amongst the six persons at the scene, within which was the victim, when he was attacked and beaten by Gavin and his gang of four.”
This statement, among others, was made on the condition of anonymity by an individual who claims to have witnessed the shooting incident that took place yesterday afternoon (Mar. 6) during Miguel ‘Bashment’ Robinson’s funeral at the Springfield Cemetery.
In his explanation of what transpired, the individual said, “The guy who was beaten lives in Newtown but occasionally visits McKnight. Yesterday afternoon, myself and five other men, including the guy from Newtown, journeyed to the funeral from the McKnight area.
“While in the cemetery, the five young men were sitting on a tomb and I was standing in front of them watching the funeral proceedings. About 20 minutes after our arrival, one of the men called me and said, ‘Let’s go.’ He said that because he had observed a number of men from the Village coming in our direction and they seemed to be in an angry mood.
“We started walking to leave the cemetery and when we were approaching the gate closest to CFBC, one of the guys with us stopped and said something but I did not hear what he said. I later learnt that he was telling one of the guys who was with us that ‘dem boys coming and if anybody here is into anything with them, they should go’. By the time I realised what he was saying and I looked around, Gavin and four other guys were standing about two feet away from us.
“I saw when Gavin took up a bottle from the ground and was approaching the guy from Newtown. The guy who had warned us of their approach called out to them by their names saying, ‘Wah aw’you doing boy? No man, aw’you got to have more respect for me and also for this solemn occasion.’ One of the guys who was with Gavin said, ‘No boy, you can’t tell us cool out at this time; this man here gang me already you know.’
“Gavin and his men started to beat up on the young man and after a while he escaped from them. But instead of going through the main gate, he was running on the wall of the cemetery with the intention of jumping off and running across the Island Main Road because they were following him. He however did not get to do that because they were on him again. One of them pushed him out of the cemetery onto the street and the five of them started beating him again,” the eyewitness said.
The eyewitness said that the incident had attracted a crowd, which included a number of people from the Village and some police officers who were in the cemetery.
“While they were beating the guy from Newtown, a number of persons from the Village area came on the scene and they thought that it was men from McKnight beating guys from the Village. But that was not the case…it was the other way around.
“There were some police officers in the cemetery and I believe that they suspected something was wrong after seeing so many persons by the road and hearing them shouting. So, while they were approaching the area where the Newtown guy was being beaten, the people from the Village shouted to Gavin and his men saying, ‘Aw’you run go, run go…police coming.’ Gavin and his men then started running through the cemetery and one of the officers in an orange-coloured shirt and a khaki pants took out his gun and fired a warning shot in the air and not at anybody as the women said.”
A female resident of McKnight, who also claimed to have been in the cemetery at the time, confirmed the male eyewitness’ version of the incident.
The lady explained that she overheard what the women were saying to this media house yesterday concerning the incident, but she remained silent until today because she did not want a confrontation.
She too noted that Whyte was the aggressor and, in denouncing what the women told this media house yesterday, said, “Those women from the Village have been lying to you all. It is Whyte and his gang who were beating the young man. If the police didn’t show up the young man may have been in the hospital or the mortuary. I saw when the senior police officer from Sandy Point pulled out a silver gun and fired a warning shot in the air and Gavin and his gang ran away.”
A number of other persons either called in or visited this media house, and all of their versions corroborated that of the male eyewitness.
