The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force is continuing to investigate the Sunday, Mar. 7 shooting death of Denzil ‘Para’ Williams in St. Peters. It was 2010’s 8th homicide in the Federation, five on St. Kitts and three on Nevis. The shooting occurred in an area called Points, in Upper Monkey Hill. District Medical Officer Dr. Mervyn Laws pronounced Williams dead on the scene. The deceased had a checkered past, including being sought as a fugitive in connection with two separate robberies involving firearms committed on November 6th and 12th, 2007. An Opposition Party statement released soon after the shooting declared that St.Kitts and Nevis “besieged By gun violence.” “This latest homicide epitomizes the lackadaisical and apathetic attitude to crime fighting that has become the hallmark of this Labour government,” said People’s Action Movement Deputy Political Leader Hon. Shawn K. Richards. MP Richards blasted the Labour government on its dismissive attitude towards crime “Crime is everywhere we are told so what if we have it here,” he said. “It is everybody’s responsibility to stop crime we are told but this government is conspicuously missing from inclusion in everybody.” In his “Ask the PM” radio program, which aired on Tuesday, Mar. 9, Prime Minister Denzil L. Douglas indicated that the police need help from the community in stopping the recent spate of shootings. “The problem we are confronted with is that, as the police commonly say, is that people may have information but are not giving information that can be used as evidence,” he said, “because it is the evidence that makes the conviction. So you have a problem where people are not giving information to the police and the community knows who are involved in these things.” He continued: “I was away and came in yesterday (Monday) and as soon as I reached in, I was told, ‘Boy is so-and-so who did that killing.’ So people seem to know, but no one is arrested because the police need evidence to make an arrest. Even when they make an arrest, they need that evidence in order to carry out a serious case for charging and eventually convicting. It’s a very complex situation that we are dealing with here. “If these are so-called gang-related or revenge-related then they [police] must stop it; we must intervene, we must prevent because if this has taken place today and it is going to trigger a revenge action then we must prevent it from happening. We must avert it, maybe putting away those who will seek the revenge or providing the necessary means of ensuring that the event is not affected. This involves not only the security forces but it involves everyone, the society, the church – all of us have to be involved if we are going to avert this unnecessary cascading of events to the point where our young lives are being snuffed out prematurely.” According to published reports, Police Press and Public Relations Officer Inspector Vaughan Henderson indicated that details of the killing were incomplete but will be made available as investigations continue. Attempts to reach Assistant Commissioner Joseph Liburd for comment on the ongoing investigations were unsuccessful.
