A fatal shooting in Dover, Christ Church on Thursday morning has triggered renewed calls for police to crack down on crime in the area.
The spokesperson for the St Lawrence, Dover and Maxwell Association, Adrian Donovan complained that given the recent increase in criminal activity in the community, an incident like that was bound to happen.
Police said that around 2:30 a.m., the Hastings/Worthing Police Station received a call from someone who reported that a man had been shot in the area of the Dover kiosks, near the beach.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene, but he has not yet been identified.
“It was only a matter of time; the situation there in the Dover kiosk beach [area] has been an ongoing problem,” said Donovan. “Too much lawlessness and illegal activity goes on and, of course, [it’s] people from outside coming into the community causing these problems.”
He said residents have been pleading for an intervention for some time now, and he hoped they would soon get it.
“The residents of course are not happy. They are going to be concerned for the welfare of themselves and their family, because you pass here when you go to work or come home, and they themselves patronise that area, but the whole area there by St Lawrence Beach needs to be carefully looked at,” Donovan said.
“There should be some kind of planned strategy to eliminate all of the bad eggs that just continue to give not just the community but the island a bad image on the whole.”
He added that while authorities had helped reduce the crime problem in previous times, the fresh wave of crime required prompt attention.
“Years ago, we were able to convince [authorities] . . . to get an outpost in the bottom of St Lawrence Gap, and that served its purpose well. But the illegal activity has now moved up to the middle of the gap in the area of the kiosks, and maybe the time has come for the police to look at a different strategy, by shifting the outpost to that area,” Donovan suggested.
“But what happened early this morning is simply disgusting, and we hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Police have appealed to the public for help in identifying the shooting victim, and for anyone who witnessed the shooting or had information about it to contact the Hastings/Worthing Police Station at 430-7615, 430-7614, police emergency at 211 or any other police station.
(SB)
