A man who testified against his co-accused on a series of charges, including murder and robbery, and whose sentence the Court of Appeal reduced last year, was gunned down in Edinboro this morning (Saturday).
Symcy Williams aka Bart, who is said to be in his 30s, died at the scene while a woman who was walking with him was taken to hospital with gunshot injuries.
iWitness News was not aware of her condition at the time of publication.
The murder, two days before Christmas, brings to three the number of people shot and killed in the West Kingstown community this month, while a further three have survived their injuries.
It also takes the homicide count this year to a record 54.
In July 2022, the Court of Appeal reduced from 10 to eight years the sentence that the High Court had imposed on Williams for his role in the July 30, 2013 robbery of Russell’s Cineplex and the murder of Rodney Grant in Stoney Ground shortly thereafter.
Williams along with Zimroy Maurice Guy, Chad Jacobs, Kamara George, and Cleroy Pinder of Edinboro, Arnos Vale, Old Montrose and Ottley Hall were charged in connection with the robbery and murder as well as other related charges.
In November 2014, Williams and Pinder, who had physically robbed the cinema, pleaded guilty to that charge.
However, in their individual statements to police, they each fingered the other as the killer of New Montrose resident Rodney Grant, at Stoney Ground.
In 2015, Williams agreed to testify for the state against his co-accused and the prosecution dropped the murder charge against him and charged Guy and Pinder with Grant’s murder.
On June 5, 2018, a jury found Guy and Pinder guilty of murder.
The four men were also found guilty of robbery, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and possession of an unlicensed firearm and six rounds of ammunition.
Guy was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder, 20 years for robbery, 12 years for the firearm offences and two years for the assault charges.
Jacobs got 10 years for robbery and eight years for the firearm offences.
George got 13 years for robbery, 10 for the firearm offences, and two years for assault.
Pinder was sentenced Pinder to 35 years for the murder, 20 years for robbery, 15 for the firearm related offences, and two years for assault.
Williams’ death follows that of Dwayne Banfield, 34, who, along with Allan Lewis, 29, were shot multiple times while walking in the area of Nine Steps, in Lower Edinboro around 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
Banfield died in hospital several hours later, while Lewis, who was reportedly shot in both legs, was listed as in stable condition.
On Dec. 2, Olando Guy, 36, one of two men who were shot in Edinboro during an early morning attack, died while undergoing surgery at MCMH.
Dee-jay Howard, 29, also of Edinboro, was shot and injured, reportedly by the same assailant.
If we sprint to the finish line, we could hit 60 by midnight December 31, making us the per capita murder capital of the world.
On your mark; get set: GO!
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
C. Ben-David your town is riddled with crimes and so is your neck of the woods. Crimes are pervasive to evey region of St Vincent. West Kingtown and Central Kingstown are hot spots and a tinderboxes about to explode. There are death squads operating in Vincy land for which the police are to inept to crack. Bailey is unsuitable for thr job.
The chickens always come home to roost.Amen
The way you live you shall die. It is sad that the victim did not see the need to change his life but lived a lawless life it was alleged. Even getting a reduced sentence was not a act as a life barometer to change his life.
As they same his chickens have come home to roost and being eaten by his enemies. What if he has left children behind? What kind of lives would they live? Would it be another man’s burden or society burden? We have seen violence is a vicious circle. It reminded me of a an individual whose father was hang in St Vincent for murder. His son has been convicted of a similar crime. Indeed the sins of the father will visit the third and fourth generations if they have not repented.