A teen’s birthday party ended in horror this past weekend when a drive- By shooting claimed the life of a 17-year-old boy and injured 3 other young persons. On Sunday, residents of Lodge Village were jolted By what one described as a “hail of gunfire” sometime around midnight. The individual told The Observer he heard about 9 gunshots before his phone rang and he was told that a number of young people had just been shot down the road from his abode. According to information gathered, there was a birthday party at the Lodge Community Centre on Saturday night, attended mostly By teenagers. The celebration came to an abrupt end when a pickup drove By and opened fire on a bunch of unsuspecting teens standing outside the venue. Reports indicated that bedlam ensued and when the smoke cleared, Jervin Wilson lay face down in the street, motionless, his back bearing multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Shared Scarborough, 18, and Adrian Wilson, 17, received non-fatal gunshot injuries during the incident. Scarborough was shot in his back and A. Wilson received a gunshot to the back of his neck. All three were residents of the adjoining Ottley’s Village. A young Ottley’s Village girl, Anastasia Williams, 18, was also injured in the scurry as she tried to avoid the gunfire. She was reportedly hit By the get-away pick-up, fracturing her right leg and sustaining multiple abrasions. The injured teens were transported to the JN France Hospital where they were reported to have been treated and warded in stable condition. Police would not confirm that the female was hit By the get-away vehicle or if the vehicle was one reportedly stolen from TDC Automotive Division at the Industrial Park earlier the same evening. Police officials gave no indication as to how many persons were reported to have been in the suspect vehicle during the commission of the crime. “The vehicle in question is suspected to be that stolen from TDC however it appears the license plate was changed. In such cases when a vehicle is recovered and when the license number remains, there is a verification process at the Traffic Department to determine the chassis number,” a reliable police source informed. Police PRO Inspector Vaughan Henderson would only tell The Observer , “No vehicle suspected to have been used in the incident has been recovered as yet.” Wilson’s death is the 7th homicide recorded in the first 2 months of 2010; all have been death By the gun. No-one has been charged in relation to any of the killings. PM Calls Teen Slaying Senseless Following the shooting death of 17-year-old Jervin Wilson this past weekend, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas expressed condolences to the victim’s family and called the act ‘senseless”. “I know the private and community trauma that these acts inflict and so separate and apart from the ongoing policies and programs of my government where this scourge is concerned, simply as a human being, I do extend my concern and my sympathy to all who have been affected.” During his live radio program on Tuesday Dr. Douglas assured that the the assailants would be dealt with By the full force of the Law once apprehended. He spoke to the bigger picture of youth violence and said the antisocial behaviors being exhibited By young people in recent times is akin to a form of psychosis. “The incident in Lodge last weekend, like incidents involving young people By young anywhere in the world, resembles in all seriousness, a form of insanity. These acts are abnormal in their extreme and so countries all over the world must now develop their expertise to identify the habits, the attitudes, the influences, the practices and the experiences that are twisting and warping these young minds and eradicate them,” he said. The PM acknowledge the far-reaching effects of these violent crimes as adversely affecting the communities, the society and the nation. “A key challenge still awaits us as a society. We have to find effective and lasting ways to dramatically strengthen those psychological, physical, moral internal personal restraints that keep law-abiding societies law abiding. We have to better understand and correct those twisted experiences and influences that have the power to make people feel good about being bad and that have the power to completely shut down an individual’s humanity, their capacity for mercy and remorse.” He called for national multi-lateral dialogue to identify ways of raising upstanding, socially responsible children as a means of reversing or eliminating the recent trend of societal dysfunction among the youth. “There needs to be a national preoccupation and a national conversation involving all races, classes, genders and ages into what goes into raising psychologically stable, humane and self-respecting children. We must openly address this pressing question because it may cause us to become more sensitive to behaviors and influences that may have crept into our society over time and which now make it more difficult for some people to rear children who are stable, humane and self-respecting.” Dr. Douglas compared the group of students who recently won the Leeward Islands Debating Competition to those young people, who on the same weekend, took the life of an innocent teen and wounded 3 others. He said valuable lessons were to be learned from both situations. “In the debates and in the assailants’ car we have two sets of young people each headed in diametrically opposite directions. What is the differences in schooling, discipline and emotional support? Last weekend’s tragedy and last weekend’s triumph however have very different but equally compelling lessons for the rest of this young and proud nation where the minds of our youth are concerned. Let all of us observe, discuss; let us dialogue, let us have this conversation; let us build.”
