Man shot by police in Newtown

By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNvibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A young man was reportedly shot by police yesterday (Dec. 19) afternoon while the lawmen attempted to execute a search warrant at the home of a male resident of Newtown.

SKNVibes arrived on the scene at Herbert Street shortly after the incident occurred and met armed officers of the Police Force, an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) unit and a small crowd of onlookers.

While information was not immediately forthcoming, and after the EMS unit departed for the JNF General Hospital with the injured man, this media house spoke with the senior police officer at the scene.

The officer said that at about 4:00 p.m. they went to the home of Samuel Walters to execute a search warrant for drugs, firearms and ammunition, but in the process of doing so “we encountered some difficulty and a man was shot”.

While the name of the shooting victim has not been ascertained, persons in the area claimed his surname to be Adams...that of his mother.

The wounded man is said to have been shot in the upper portion of his body.

SKNVibes also spoke with Walters who gave his side of the story.

Walters said he was in his home watching TV while the young man, who had minutes before exited the bathroom, was sitting on a bed. He added that he heard loud banging and rattling sounds on the door to his home, which caused the safety device to be undone, leaving the door open.

He said a number of officers entered his home, pointed their guns at him and demanded he did not move. Walters further said he was ordered to move to another room, and at that moment the young man attempted to get away from the scene by jumping through a nearby window. 

Walters added that shortly after the young man’s exit, he heard the sound of gunfire and later found that the youth was shot.

The obviously shaken man said that sometime during the incident he asked the police the reason for their presence in his home.

“After the young man was shot and while they were in the house, I ask the officers to tell me the reason for them coming to my home. They tell me that they were executing a search for guns, ammunition and drugs. When they begin to search my house I asked them to show me the warrant, and is then I see one of them touch the other and he went outside to the vehicle and bring the warrant,” Walters said.

Walters told this media house that he does not deal with any of the items the police were searching for and they [he and the young man] are law-abiding citizens.

SKNVibes contacted the Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Cromwell Henry, for more information concerning the incident, but he said he had not yet been made aware of the details.