UPDATE: May 8, 2014 — The two men wanted in connection with the death of Kyle Phillips have been taken into police custody. (Read: Wanted men now in police custody)
Original story:
Police have declared two Lowmans Leeward men wanted as homicide detectives continue their investigation into the shooting death of another resident of the West Kingstown community.
Wanted are 30-year-old Jason Henry and 24-year-old Rodney Roberts.
In a bulletin late Wednesday, police said the men’s name have surfaced and are of interest in their investigation into the shooting death of Kyle Phillips of Lowmans Leeward, which occurred around 9:10 p.m. Tuesday.
Police said in a separate bulletin also on Wednesday that it is reported that two unknown assailants approached and shot Phillips.
He sustained gunshots wound to his stomach and left hand and was taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital where he succumbed to the injuries.
They say that both wanted men are considered armed and dangerous. They are being asked to report to the Criminal Investigation Department by 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 8.
Persons seeing these men, knowing of their whereabouts, or having any information relating to them are being asked to contact the Officer in Charge CID/CRO/MCU at telephone 456-1810 or 457-1211 ext. 226, 227, 228, 222, 223, 224.
Calls would be treated in confidence and callers can remain anonymous, police say.
Descriptions:
Name: Rodney Roberts
Alias: P-2
D.O.B: 6 November, 1989
Address: Lowmans Leeward
Height: 5’ 10”
Complexion: Dark
Name: Jason Henry
Alias: Two-B
D.O.B: 16 September 1983
Address: Lowmans Leeward
Height: 5’ 7”
Complexion: Dark
I feel compelled to comment on this matter. I feel like I have no choice. I have seen what crime has done to many countries in the Americas and its not pretty. We have seen what has happened in Trinidad recently with the symbolic assassination of a member of the law enforcement establishment. I love my country. SVG is heading in the same direction but I sincerely hope it never reaches there.
We are losing our children and young people to crime. If we truly gave a damn, if we truly loved them and cared about preserving our young generation we would be pulling our hair out trying to find solutions. I cannot pretend to know what these solutions are but at least I can contribute my two cents.
A lot of these crimes are committed by immature people who cannot control their impulses or their anger, who have no good role models and who have no hope for the future. What do we do about it? The obvious first step is anger management. We need to implement programs in our local communities run by persons from those communities where our young people are taught anger management skills and impulse control. In our local communities we need to have programs where our youths are taught alternative dispute resolution skills. They need to understand that every conflict does not need to be settled by a knife or a gun.
Many of our youths are unemployed and have no outlet within which to discharge their prodigious energies. Even if we can’t find paid jobs for our youth its a crime in itself to just neglect them and leave them to their own devices. Our youths need productive outlets within which to put their energies. What about national service? What about encouraging greater youth participation in the creative aspects of carnival. What about encouraging our youths to explore their creative sides for the benefits of their community. Where are arts and crafts in this country? Nowhere! Why are we not nudging our idle. youth in these directions?
We too often ignore the influence that parenting and family life have on our youth. There are too many dysfunctional households in our country. dysfunctional families are the incubators of dysfunctional people. There is too much child abuse. A habitually abused child only understands the language of violence. A child whose autonomy, individuality and dignity is habitually disrespected will equally share out disrespect to those he comes into contact with. SVG has an epidemic of disrespect towards children in families. Little wonder we are where we are today. How difficult is it to put programs in place for families identified as being at risk and reorient them towards a healthier way of interpersonal interaction. I think these initiatives can be way cheaper than pouring more and more money into our justice and penal system.
Beyond that we need to present our youth with good role models, not just on the national level but also on the level of local communities and we need to cultivate a culture of mentoring. It is heart rending to see the paucity of role models in our communities. The power of a role model is soo much heftier than the power of cable tv and the internet.
What pains me the most though is our sorely lacking education system. We are not properly taught our history, we are not properly taught to understand our present circumstances. We don’t understand who we are or where we are going. Africa is alien to us. We are a lost people with no sense of who we are. We are not taught what our responsibilities and obligations are as citizens of SVG and we are not held accountable, both at the level of the family, the local community and the law enforcement level. given all of this it is no wonder SVG is spiraling out of control. Poverty has nothing to do with this. There are many countries poorer than us where the crime is not at the level it is here in SVG. Its not poverty, its about values, respect, pride and self control. Its time that we learned those things. Lets not be too quick to call for the death penalty before we address these things.