Saint Lucia, yesterday, recorded its 31st homicide for the year, after a young man was gunned down in Vieux Fort.
This incident has again stirred up fear in the hearts of Vieux Fort residents. According to police reports, Nervic Louis was murdered in the community in the wee hours of the morning, however, details surrounding his death are still sketchy. Louis’ murder is the latest in a series of shootings in Vieux Fort.
The community continues to grapple with the increased level of criminal activity, which, according to reports, has also affected some businesses.
Parliamentary representative for Vieux Fort South, Dr. Kenny Anthony hopes to mitigate the crime situation in the southern part of the community. He met with the Police High Command recently to discuss issues pertaining to crime in the constituency.
“The warfare between various gangs must cease. Residents live in constant fear, sometimes dodging bullets as they seek refuge, even in broad daylight. It is totally unacceptable that Vieux Fortians cannot roam freely in their own community. Many of our young men have died because of these acts of violence,” Dr. Anthony noted in a press release.
Opposition Leader Allen Chastanet also commented on the issue recently, noting that due to heightened criminal activity, economic life in Vieux Fort has been affected severely.
“Before it would take you over an hour to drive through Clark Street now you drive through (and) there’s nobody there. There’s no economic activity, everybody is suffering. (It’s) not just the victims themselves but as a result of the seriousness of the crime, everybody is suffering,” Chastanet said.
“(Despite) some of the issues that (Operation) Restore Confidence created, people are willing to say bring it back. It tells you that we are getting to a point of no return,” Chastanet added.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, another homicide was recorded. According to police reports, 34-year-old Serniah Amedee succumbed to gunshot injuries after he was shot in L’esperance, Fond St Jacques.
Amedee was allegedly attacked by two unknown assailants and was discovered in his bedroom with multiple gunshot wounds.
This wasn’t his first attack, an online publication indicated.
The deceased, prior to his passing, was recovering from a gunshot wound to the arm which he sustained “during a previous attack at his home a few months ago”, Loop News revealed Friday.
Amedee was transported to the St Jude Hospital after Thursday’s shooting incident in critical condition, where he later succumbed.
It is urgent that we have a Minister tough enough to deal with this problem. As much as I like and respect our Prime Minister, I doubt very much he has what it takes to deal with this urgent matter. Looking at our Cabinet of governors, there may be some I don’t trust and some whom I just don’t think have it in them to handle this urgent situation. So the question is what do we do? it is obvious that at this moment we are faced with a big problem. The situation of murder can be dealt with by the Law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but under our Lega System this is forbidden and the criminals know it. Most of them, if not all are ex-criminals the Jail house is not a deterrent to them. We can start with todays’ youth but we already have a hardened set of criminal Gangs and sorry to say that the Police are not doing enough. All I can say now is to call on our ‘dear Father in heaven who listens to our call in times of need’ and always helps.