The shooting death of a man in Villa Monday night has brought the murder toll in St. Vincent and the Grenadines this year to 34.
The country has registered, on average, one murder per day over the last week or so, four of which were committed last week Sunday night, allegedly by a mentally ill man.
The latest victim is Fair Hall resident Allonzo “Crackie” Kydd, who was sprayed with bullets in Villa Monday night around 9:35.
Police received a call that there was a shooting in the Villa area and when they responded, the Fair Hall resident was met dead with multiple gunshot wounds about his body.
Reports say that upwards of 10 bullets were fired at Kydd.
His shooting death follows those of Buccament Bay shopkeeper Edgar Reid, 59, who was shot in the head last week Wednesday night in what police said was a robbery, and Paul Avenue resident Sean Dopwell who was pronounced dead the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital after being shot after a football match at the nearby Victoria Park last week Tuesday night.
Just two night before that, Nicolas Layne, 36, of Edinboro, was clobbered and stabbed to death in Campden Park; Avis Israel, a 75-year-old retired nurse and her 47-year-old son, Ronald Israel, were also beaten to death at their home in Dasent Cottage, and 59-year-old Pamela Williams died after being stabbed and a concrete brick dropped on her head inside a bedroom of her Kingstown Park house.
Police say that Jurani Baptiste, an 18-year-old man with a history of mental illness who was caught at Williams’ house, is the suspect in those four killings.
Jurani Baptiste: How drug abuse may have turned star teen cricketer into suspected killer
Saint Vincent is crying for leadership, but it is just not there.
And not just state leadership… Leadership in families, villages, communities. Too many are willing to sit back waiting on the other to make a stand…too many have forgotten that leadership is influence and we all influence each other every day… Even through our inaction. Time every day Vincentian’s begin to lead one another toward “peace and justice”…
I tried to communicate on Face book about the situation on SVG and felt people just wanted to show off their writing skills. So I will publish it here so others can look at it and do something about the crime spree in SVG if they really care. You can probably work with the police but you cant depend on them because of the response time.
Check out my idea below and feel free to comment, add and give some positive feedbacks.
Guys, lets do something about the crime situation in SVG. Forget about the political parties. You, your children, siblings and friends may one day visit SVG and become statics of crime. So let’s get serious about doing something. Here is a plan and there may be many more but each journey begins with a first step.
Cameras: Today folks can monitor their homes from miles away, or right in your living room from their cell phones.
Dogs: A trained dog or even a good dog will alert home owners of intruders before they try to enter a home, which gives the occupants enough time to take necessary precaution.
Based on the above are there anyone willing to make a little investment in security in their homeland?
Ill wait for your response before I explain how we can go about it. Many people feel that we should not make investment in our homeland, but allow others to do so. Investing in SVG creates jobs for Vincentians because you dont have to bring in people from outside the island to perform jobs that Vincentians can handle. Any profits that come out of an investment will probably be ploughed back into the islands economy, instead of being shipped to banks in Panama and elsewhere.
If your care and are willing to stop the old talk and do something then please respond and pass this email to other Vincentians to get them involved. I will even setup a Blog to compile the information coming from all your responses. Once all the data and ideas have been collected, then we can take it from there.
Come on, what are you waiting for?