Claims Mighty Junior wrongfully arrested for Prickly Pear Alley shooting
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A young mother, distraught over the manner in which the police are conducting their investigation into the Prickly Pear Alley shooting incident, is accusing the law enforcement agency of incompetence and harassment of her 19-year-old son.
Jasmine Lake, the mother of Oval Lake who was jointly charged with Inebo Hendrickson on Friday (Mar. 16) for allegedly shooting at Shervin David with intent, said that the investigating officers have refused to accept corroborating evidence that proves her son’s innocence.
Recounting what transpired before her son was taken into custody and charged with the offence, Lake told SKNVibes that between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 11, 2012, she received a phone call from her niece stating that Oval was shot and she was taking him to the JNF Hospital.
“After receiving the call, I immediately left for the hospital. About five minutes after my arrival there the Commissioner of Police and his men came to investigate the matter. They questioned Oval and he told them that he was smoking in de mango patch near to our Shadwell Estate home.
“He told them that while there smoking, two masked men appeared from nowhere and started shooting at him. And that is what he also told me before their arrival. The police then asked him who and he have beef and Oval told them no one.”
Lake said the Commissioner and his men left the hospital after speaking to her son; but some five minutes later her sister called and told her that police were searching their home for firearms, ammunition and drugs.
“During that search, the police found two-dime bags of weed. I didn’t know that weed was in our home. But I had suspected that my son does smoke because, sometime in the past, I picked up the scent and I scolded and warned him of the dangers in doing that. He promised to stop and since then I haven’t seen him smoking or smelled him it on him; but he admitted to me and the police that the weed was his,” Lake said.
She said the police had returned to search her home on the following day and also on Tuesday but found nothing, but took her niece’s laptop and her son’s cellular phone as well as a quantity of DVDs into custody. These items, she said, were later retrieved by her niece from the Basseterre Police Station.
“On Monday morning everybody was surprised to see how the police moved into our home as if it was a storage for guns and ammunition. They did the same thing on Tuesday and found nothing. Why didn’t they go and search the suspects’ homes instead of my son who was shot?
“The police went and told the media that Oval was not attacked by anyone and that he shot himself. Oval was shot in his left leg straight throw. If anybody shoots themselves, the wound will be straight down…not straight throw. Therefore, the police need not judge people but conduct thorough investigations if they really want to solve crimes.”
The mother said that she went to the hospital on Wednesday (Mar. 14) to see her son, but he was not in the ward where he was initially placed.
“I asked why did he move from the Surgical Ward and he said he didn’t feel comfortable with so many people always coming into the ward and inspecting it. I did not visit him on the following day, but my sister and daughter went. However, on Friday while I was preparing to go there, his father called me on the phone and said that Oval will be coming home because gunman was at the hospital the night before and the doctor is sending him home.”
Lake told this media house that the Prickly Pear Alley shooting victim, David, and her son are friends and that both of them were in the same ward.
She noted that shortly after her son arrived home on Thursday, two police officers went to her residence and took him to him to the Basseterre Police Station.
“My son, whose leg was swollen and he had to walk with a crutch, was taken to the courthouse after they charged him for the shooting that took place at Prickly pear Alley.
“I asked one of the officers [name provided] why they had charged my son and what evidence they had. He told me that the evidence was upstairs, and I guess he meant at the CID office. I then said to him, ‘How come this paper you give me ain’t state no evidence?’ He told me to check with Commissioner Walwyn for the evidence.
“I also asked the officer, ‘How come you charging him with something different from what you all found…where are the two dime bags you all find when you all search the house Sunday?’ He told me that he didn’t know.”
Lake said that on Saturday (Mar. 17) she visited David at the hospital and was very surprised at what he revealed to her.
“On Saturday I went to visit Shervin and he asked me what the situation was with Oval. I said to him, ‘Boy I come tell you what’s going on. The police have arrested Oval saying that he shoot you.’ Shervin said to me that he can’t believe it was true because he had already told Commissioner Walwyn that it was two persons who shot him.
“He also told me that the shooting occurred because he used to be involved with a girl from St. Paul’s and, because he does lime with fellows from Sandy Point, the St. Paul’s boys were after him. Shervin said that the morning when he was shot, he was at Cloud 9 on Port Zante and some boys from St. Paul’s had run him down and that he had already told the Commissioner of that incident.”
Lake said she is very upset over the matter and knows, from the overwhelming evidence that her son, who in the calypso arena is known as the Mighty Junior, is innocent of the charge laid against him.
“My son was charged for shooting his friend and his friend gave Commissioner Walwyn the description of the men who shot him. Since that is a fact, why then would the police charge Oval for a crime he didn’t commit? Is it that the police want the public to believe that they are efficiently doing their job, when it is known that they normally charge innocent people and lose their cases for lack of evidence when they appear in court?
“Why don’t they work on Shervin’s statement and stop harassing people’s children? Some of these police officers remind me of the movie ‘Third World Cop’. They are deadly…then they want to talk bad about the soldiers. But, Mr. Bad COP, you must first clean the head before you go to the tail. However, all I have for you is Psalms 91, 35 and nine, as well as Romans eight…and to all of Junior fans, this is the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”
When contacted for a comment on the allegations made by Lake, the Police PRO indicated that he had nothing to say on the matter at this time.
Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on on Sunday (Mar. 11) this media house learned that David was shot to his legs while among a group of men playing dominoes on Prickly Pear Alley.
According to a police press release, while David was among friends at Prickly Pear Alley, a vehicle stopped at the junction of that Alley and Central Street and “two persons alighted from the vehicle and began to discharge their firearms. Shirvin David sustained wounds to his legs and on arrival at the JNF Hospital underwent emergency surgery”.
A subsequent release stated that 24-year-old Hendrickson of Upper Monkey Hill and Oval Lake were formally arrested and charged on Friday (Mar. 16) with shooting David.
The release noted that Hendrickson and Lake appeared at the Magistrate’s Court in Basseterre seeking bail, but the police objected and both of them were remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison.
