AG: Crime situation can’t be solved overnight

Targeted hits!

That’s how Attorney General Dale Marshall has described the recent spate of murders which has seen four men being gunned down in 48 hours.

And while Marshall has assured Barbadians that they have nothing to worry about, he has also given notice that the Barbados Police Service (BPS) cannot wave a magic wand and correct the situation overnight.

On Tuesday around 6:25 p.m. 21-year-old Jarad Jones-Cox was shot dead while sitting in a car outside of his home in King’s Gap, Eagle Hall. Four hours later, 43-year-old Rommel Trotman of Redman’s Gap, Westbury Road, was also gunned down a short distance away from his home.

On Wednesday night 33-year-old Nemroy Harvey’s bullet-riddled body was found in a bushy area after he was ambushed by three gun-toting men and on Thursday night a man who is yet to be identified, was found slumped in a car in Castle Heights, St Philip, after reportedly being shot.

These incidents brought the murders tally for the year to 28, with 21 of those being gun-related.

There were 32 murders in 2021, 41 in 2020 and 48 in 2019.

During a press conference on Friday afternoon at police headquarters, Marshall said none of the recent killings had been random.

The Attorney General maintained that the latest murders were just “a spike” and were not expected to stay at the present consistently high level.

Marshall reassured Barbadians that the country had not “descended into any state of anarchy,” and was still a safe place to live.

“In these circumstances, especially with four vicious shootings in a very narrow window, the country is very correctly concerned about this state of affairs and I therefore feel it is important that we come back to the country to discuss what for them would be a very burning concern.

“The first thing I’d like to say is that we must not lose sight of the fact that this is a spike. From practically time in memoriam we have always seen, whether it is in relation to homicides, gun-related crimes, burglaries, we’ve never seen a consistent level of activity. It dies down and then periodically it will emerge as a spike again. While the nature and extent of this spike could not have been anticipated by anyone, we see no reason to believe this is a start of what could be an extended trend,” Marshall said.

“These shootings are not random shootings. Commissioner Boyce has already spoken to the country and pointed out that this particular spate of instability is being caused by two or three groups that are engaging in feuding and recriminations. These criminals know and plot for the people who they are targeting and invariably it is the associates or members of the rival groups. To me, this signals on a whole that Barbadians remain safe in their homes and in their communities.”

Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce told members of the media that had it not been for the actions of the Barbados Police Service the murder count would be even higher.

He revealed that police had protected several persons from death based on information they had received.

“Persons who have been identified as targets, we too expend tremendous resources in protecting those persons. We take those persons into safe custody and keep them safely until things die down and if we were not doing that, mind you, our murder rate would be skyrocketing,” Boyce said.

“But we have a heart and we see them as our brothers and sisters and we put the resources to protect them. Some people might say, ‘man why protect a bad boy?’ But we don’t see it that way. We embrace them, we nurture them, we protect them and those are things that we are doing and will continue to do.”

The Attorney General however, admitted that the recent shootings had the propensity to threaten Barbadians’ way of life.

He said the country would look less attractive and Barbadians may feel the country is under siege.

Marshall said even though the BPS was doing all in its power, the problem could not be solved easily.

He urged Barbadians to assist police officers in whatever way they could in helping to solve the murders.

“I have to ask Barbadians not to expect the impossible. We cannot turn around this insidious problem overnight. There are no overnight solutions, so if there are Barbadians who are thinking that the BPS will be able, by snapping its fingers, to arrest the kind of violence we are seeing between groups and so on, it is a fool’s errand. It cannot and will not be turned around overnight,” Marshall said.

“It will require steady diligent work on the part of the BPS, on the part of the Government and equally important on the part of the people of Barbados.”

Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, David Griffith said the BPS was working around the clock and had so far solved 15 of the 28 murders to date.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb