A Belmont teenager was on Friday charged with the murder of the police officer who died after being stabbed at a primary school fair on Monday.
Unemployed 18-year-old Maverick Joseph was charged that with malice aforethought, he caused the death of 25-year-old police constable Giovanni Charles of New Montrose by an unlawful act.
Joseph was not required to plea to the indictable charge when he appeared before chief magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias at the Serious Offences Court in Kingstown.
He was remanded in custody until Aug. 10, when a preliminary inquiry is carded to begin.
The police officer was stabbed in the neck while he worked at the entrance to the Belmont Primary School.
Reports are that Charles had tried to evict from the fair a man who had entered without paying the EC$2 entrance fee.
The situation escalated and the police officer was stabbed in the neck.
He was rushed to hospital but died.
The case has raised questions about the assistance given to Charles immediately after he was injured.
A photo has emerged on social media showing Charles being pushed in a wheelbarrow.
Reports are that a civilian, accompanied by police officers, transported Charles to hospital.
Further, in the photo, the wounded Charles is bareback and has what appears to be his police-issued t-shirt tied around his neck.
Questions were asked about why pressured was not applied directly to the wound, in an effort to stop the bleeding.
There is a need for civilians to be brief on applying First Aid.
An accused murderer in custody is being transported in an open back vehicle, wow. The police men look like they just rolled out of bed and acting as though they are escorting someone who just committed a misdemeanor and not a person who [allegedly] murdered one of their fellow officers. The optics are jarring to say the least.
On the issue of moving the injured officer and folks not applying pressure to the wound, I have to say, this level of ignorance is indicative of a larger malaise that affect our society in that, we are still a relatively backward country. It’s not that we are a nation of morons but the leadership within the country over the past fifty years have failed to put in place any sort of social infrastructure and protocol that our people can learn from and develop good habit and mindset that goes to the wellness of our society.
Let’s take for instance, littering. We have no culture of disposing our waste in a responsible manner. We throw our garbage anywhere. Why is that? Cause over the years, garbage disposal was never a priority for the respective governments; as long as the sanitation folks move the garbage out of sight then everything is fine. No public education on the proper and responsible manner of disposing our garbage. No proper waste management system until recently and even that system is half arse.
We simply have a very ill discipline attitude in every facet of our society. And when our civil leaders are only obsessed with gaining power and not proper governance; the fabric of our society will continue to be torn apart by these ill discipline behaviors.
RIP constable Charles.
Seems like you agree with my comments above!
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Littering developed from … nowhere.
Fifty years ago, there was litlle or no littering (but lots of other environmental sins like sand and gravel mining and tree-tree fishing which eventually depleted fishing of the adult species) because there was nothing to litter among our hand-to-mouth people who were lucky to get some brown paper to wrap their daily shop purchases, often made on credit, and who could afford to buy few canned goods, and whose little heap of garbage (mainly bush sweeped up from the yard) was collected and burnt every day. No fast or even slow cooked food from most shops in the countryside.
So no littering.
Today, the poor are no longer poor and can afford to buy all kinds of crap sold in non-degradable plastic and styrofoam containers. Garbage is picked up only once a week though there is lots more of it than 50 years ago and plastic fast-food containers ranging from sweet drink bottles to fried chicken containers are tossed all about with abandon.
TeacherFang, our politicians are our own people. They have simply accepted the slow but steady deterioration of our country as both natural and normal.
Only you and I, and a tiny minority of others, even notice let alone give one damn about the physical decline of our once pristine country.
Welcome to “the Gem of the Antilles” and “the Natural Place to Be.”
My God!!!!
He look so scared and embarrassed.
Hope he has a lawyer!
I would think he now realizes what he did was stupid and reckless.
But he has to now face the consequence of his actions.
I wonder when our elected politicians, including the Honourable Prime Minister and his alter ego, the Honourable Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, will be charged with “malice aforethought” in killing the Vincentian expression of our fragile Caribbean civilization with their poor policies, false promises, worthless practices, outdated prejudices, wicked persecutions, and laughable pomposity.
After hearing it was an ice pick used and saw the photo of him in the wheelbarrow with blood all over and a t-shirt around his neck my exact words were ‘one finger on the wound could’ve stopped all this and save his life’.