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Bloody year . . . 2019 Record for murder

by Randy Bennett
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Barbados TODAY begins its countdown to 2020 with a recap of the major happenings of 2019.

We get started with one of the biggest issues of the last 12 months – CRIME

The levels of crime and violence in Barbados grew to an unprecedented level in 2019.

With still two weeks left in the year, there have been a record 48 murders, the highest ever number recorded.

It is almost double the 28 murders of 2018 and has easily surpassed the previous record of 35 murders which occurred in 2006.

33-year-old Damien Trotman was shot dead at Sheraton Centre on March 22..

What is also especially shocking is the number of firearmrelated killings, with 30 persons so far dying by the gun.

Within the first three weeks of the year and less than eight months after his portfolio had been assigned to him, Prime Minister Mia Mottley relieved Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson of some of his duties.

The move came at a time when the island was experiencing a frightening spate of gun-related and other violent activity.

His duties, related to the Royal Barbados Police Force, along with the Forensic Services Centre, the Criminal Justice Research Unit and the Police Complaints Authority, were reassigned to Attorney General Dale Marshall.

In an attempt to stem the rising violence in April, with 20 murders already having been committed, lawmakers hastily made amendments to the Firearms Act.

The changes meant that where a person was charged with murder, treason and high treason or an offence under the Firearms Act which is punishable with imprisonment of ten years or more, that person shall not be granted bail unless 24 months have passed.

At the time, the Attorney General said the move was to address the increased gun violence on the island.

“We still have a duty to maintain an orderly society where rights of individuals are balanced. To set a bail restriction of 24 months we think that is reasonable in this case. We know that dealing with the Bail Act this way will not solve all of our problems but I am convinced it will go a long way in bringing some order to our streets,” Marshall said.

Soon after, a one-week gun amnesty was introduced.

Following that period, Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith revealed that the amnesty had been “expectedly unsuccessful” and that 32 illegal firearms and 1758 rounds of assorted ammunition had been handed over to police.

Gun-toting criminals carried out some of the most brazen and heinous killings ever seen, with the deaths of Damien Trotman and Dave Archer coming to mind.

The 33-year-old Trotman was gunned down in the food court of the popular Sheraton Centre mall on March 22 in broad daylight, as dozens of patrons dined and shopped. The murder sent shockwaves through the country.

It happened just outside the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet inside the food court.

Civilians were left stunned and operations at the Sergeant’s Village complex came to an abrupt halt, as he became the island’s 20th murder of the year.

A team of reporters was in the mall conducting an interview with members of the disabled community, when the gunman started firing meters away.

Hakeem Roberto Stuart, 21, and former calypso monarch Aziza Tsgaye Kebret Clarke, 23, were subsequently charged in connection with Trotman’s death.

Just over two months later, Barbados was again rocked, this time by Archer’s death onboard party boat, the MV Dreamchaser on June 10.

MV dream chaser

Around 10:35 p.m. that night, Archer, a role model who worked with at-risk youth and participated in bodybuilding competitions, was shot on board the boat during an altercation.

According to police, Archer and other security personnel had to intervene in a fight that occurred moments before docking.

The assailant exited the boat and returned with two other males.

Security guards were alerted and a struggle ensued resulting in him being shot. He was rushed by police to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he later died.

Rommel Cummins, 27, of Vauxhall No. 2, Christ Church appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court charged with Archer’s death.

In what can only be described as the actions of a serial killer, a teenaged boy was charged with the unnatural deaths of three people, one of whom was his mother.

Ramario Antonio Roach, of River Bay, St Lucy was accused of murdering his mother, Joann Roach, whose partially decomposed body was discovered in a watercourse in the same area on January 21.

He was also charged with the unnatural death of Dr Sarah Sutrina, a former employee of the University of the West Indies, whose mutilated body was discovered on January 22, at Ocean Estate, Northumberland, St Lucy and the murder of Tyrone Austin, 68, of Free Hill, Black Rock, St Michael, whose lifeless body was discovered in a bushy area at Wanstead Gardens, St James on December 18, 2018.

Ramario Roach

In what was a heartbreaking incident, both Betty Mayers and her son Jamal Mayers were gunned down at her house in Rices, St Philip, on March 17.

Their killers have yet to be apprehended.

Not only young people’s lives were lost amidst the violence as 69-year-old Martha Doyle had her throat slashed on January 21, at a nursing home in Vauxhall, Christ Church, where she was a resident. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb

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