CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – “I appeal to all those who intend or have an intention of engaging in any reprisal, not to even consider it.”
This impassioned appeal was made on Tuesday (Apr. 18) by Premier Vance Amory to the citizens and residents of Nevis following the shooting-death of 28-year-old Morella Webbe and gunshot injuries to her 34-year-old friend, Sonia Grant.
It was reported that about 3:45 a.m. on Monday (Apr. 17) while Webbe and Grant (following a night out) were seated in a parked car in proximity of their Cotton Ground home in Nevis, they came under a hail of bullets fired by an assailant or assailants.
Both women sustained injuries and were transported to the Alexandra Hospital, where Webbe was pronounced dead and Grant remains warded.
The vehicle, which was reportedly driven by Webbe, bears multiple gunshot strikes and suggests that an automatic firearm was used in the commission of this heinous crime.
Investigations into this incident are ongoing and police on Nevis are seeking the public’s assistance in bringing the perpetrator or perpetrators to justice.
In his address, Premier Amory, who is also the Minister with Responsibility for Security in the Nevis Island Administration, said the incident has been a great cause of concern to his Administration and the Federal Government, especially as the nation has seen the loss of another young person.
“This tragic loss of life and this act of criminality and wanton waste of our human resource has to be stopped,” stressed Amory.
The Premier referred to the last time he had spoken to the people of Nevis in which he warned of acts of reprisal following the March 26 shooting-death of a young man from Rawlins Village.
“I warned about reprisals at the shooting-death of one Randell Chapman. Is this a case of that reprisal? I do not know. The police will have to determine that. However, what I do know is that the image of the country of Nevis and St. Kitts and Nevis is being tarnished with every incident of this type.
“I know I have appealed to all the people in this country – parents, leaders in the community and anyone who knows anyone who is committing or is about to commit a crime or anyone who is in possession of guns or knives which could lead to criminal activity - I make this appeal again and I do so because we are now faced with another traumatic experience and there is no excuse, as far as I am concerned, for us to continue down this path.”
Premier Amory informed that discussions were held with the High Command of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force on their crime fighting strategy and tactics, and that plans are on the front burner to meet with them again, but on Nevis, to look at “ways in which we can intensify the fight against criminal activity here in Nevis”.
He explicated that “we want our country to remain a place where people can feel comfortable to come. We want our country to be a place where we can feel at peace and we can feel safe and secure in our homes or on the streets”.
The Premier however intimated the he was not trying to make any excuse, because the matter of criminality and crime and violence is everyone’s business. “It is not a party political issue and whatever may have been said in the past in respect of any responsible party or responsible persons to spearhead the fight against crime. This, now, has reached the point where every single one of us has to assume that responsibility.”
He expressed his condolence to Webbe’s family and noted that it might be just pure expression of sympathy, but that would not bring back life.
“It will not remove the scar of the trauma nor will it remove the fear which people feel,” he added.
Amory declared that they would give the police the direction to take certain very serious steps to deal with this matter, but he would not divulge what those steps are.
He however promised that those decisions would be very stringent and they would not allow the police to rest, as well as not allowing anyone who is suspected of committing crimes to rest.
“We cannot take any more of this,” Amory emphasised. “My fellow citizens, let us see this act of criminality for what it is. It is destroying the good name of our country and we cannot allow that to happen. I spoke to you last time and said that when actions like these happen, people might want to reconsider their investments. They may want to reconsider visiting, but I do know Nevis is by and large a place of peace; a place where we can feel secure but we need to know that there will not be any reoccurrence of this dastardly type of action.”
He also extended condolences to all families that had suffered and are suffering and asked that anyone who has any information to pass it on to the police so they could take action to arrest the persons and bring them to justice swiftly.
Meanwhile, last evening (Apr. 19) on his weekly radio programme ‘On the Mark’, Deputy Premier Mark Brantley also extended his condolence to Webbe’s family members.
He also took the opportunity to rebuke those parents who are aware of their sons’ nefarious activities and the “hiding of guns under the bed, in the ceiling and outside of their residence”.
Brantley also spoke to the girlfriends of “those vagabonds”, who transport the firearms hidden on their body for their boyfriends to commit crime. He warned them of the consequences and also urged them to desist from engaging in such activity.
The Deputy Premier further urged all residents not to remain “blind, dumb and deft” to the many violent incidents they would have witnessed, but to use the technological resources provided by the police to inform them so that the perpetrators could be brought to justice.
He pointed to the incident of 23-year-old Randell Chapman who was gunned down by two masked assailants during a cricket match played at the Cotton Ground Playfield in the presence of many spectators.
Brantley lamented that no one had reportedly claimed to have seen what transpired on that fateful Sunday, and that many people are blaming the police for not solving most of the crimes, especially those involving gun-related deaths.
He noted that when family members and relatives of those said blind, deaf and dumb persons are victims of gun violence, they cry foul and are heard pleading to individuals who might have witnessed what transpired to provide the police with the information.
Brantley bemoaned such attitude towards crime and violence and called on all citizens and residents of the twin-island Federation to cooperate with the police and assist them in the fight against crime.
Morella Webbe’s death has taken the number of homicides committed on Nevis to three and the seventh in the Federation for this year.
