MORE than 48 hours after the shooting dead of 42 -year -old Kimberly Williams de Leon, a mother of two, pertinent questions about the incident are yet to be answered by the Police Department investigating the matter.
De Leon, who worked in the accounts department of the Ministry of Education, was shot at her home on Chef Harry Drive, The Morne, Monday, at about 10:30pm, according to police.
Dorian O’Brian, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police responsible for Operations, told a news conference — on the morning after the shooting — that de Leon was pronounced dead on the scene by a medical practitioner.
He said officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force responded to shots being fired at Chef Harry Drive, The Morne and on arrival there was a victim named Kimberly Williams de Leon.
The Victim is said to have been the wife of a police officer.
O’Brian Tuesday admitted that a police officer was a person of interest in the investigations into the shooting and that at the time there was no other person being viewed as such.
It could not be ascertained, prior to press time yesterday, whether a police officer is the person of interest, whether someone else is assisting the police in that incident, or whether there are more than one person designated as ‘a person of interest’ .
The VOICE also could not clearly establish whether the police officer, said to be a person of interest in the case by O’Brian, has been charged.
“At this point in time, I cannot say whether the chances of charging this person are high, medium or low. It’s a matter of the investigation and its results,” O’Brian said Tuesday.
But O’Brian was quick to note that investigations into the incident are active and are being led by a senior member of the Major Crimes Unit of the police force.
The investigations, he said, will be “unbiased in its scope” and added that “no one should believe that because the person of interest is a police officer, bias will exist in the probe underway.”
“I have full confidence in the person carrying out the investigation and let me assure you that the person carrying out the investigation is a senior officer, one of the most senior officers in the Major Crimes Department,” O’Brian said.
The senior cop told reporters he does not see the need for having an independent investigation into the matter because of the unbiased nature of the present lead investigator, who was not named.
However, O’Brian acknowledged that if the Director of Public Prosecutions calls for an independent investigation, then there will be one.
O’Brian also debunked reports circulating on social media that the police officer in custody holds the rank of Inspector in the force. In discrediting such claims, he declined revealing the rank the officer hold in the police force.
