Illegal party crackdown

Sound system operators are being warned that they might lose their licences if they continue to provide services to promoters of unapproved parties.

The warning comes from Senior Superintendent of Police Wayne Joseph, commanding officer for Westmoreland, who has vowed to enforce the law to its full extent after seven people were shot at the ‘Investment Ova Hype’ party at Pilots Place in Bridgewater, Westmoreland on Sunday morning.

One of the seven died, another was admitted to hospital in critical condition, while five are stable, Joseph confirmed.

The deceased has been identified as party promoter Lasharoo Shaw, otherwise known as ‘Dwayne’ or ‘Lenky’ of Belfont, in St James.

According to Joseph, the group of seven were in the process of cleaning up the party venue when they were attacked by men driving a white Toyota Axio motorcar.

The men alighted from the vehicle firing several shots, leaving a trail of injured behind.

Joseph blamed the incident on illegal parties, which he said no approval was sought for, and warned party promoters that they too would be prosecuted.

“There is a reason we don’t give permits for some parties, because we have to do security checks an/d risk assessment,” said Joseph.

He noted that the assessments are done to protect the lives of innocent persons who might go into these parties not knowing the danger in front of them.

“So it depends on who is keeping the party, sometimes it’s persons we know are not of good character. Sometimes they are involved with other persons and there are ongoing feuds. Sometimes there are risks of reprisals and a lot of times, when persons cannot find their opponents, these are places that they look out for them, where there are large gatherings or parties,” he argued.

He revealed that many decide to avoid making applications, keeping the parties secret from the police.

“And, so we will be coming down with the full force of the law. If you are, if you’re a sound operator and you are contracted by somebody who is keeping a party, make sure you find out if that person has a permit because you will too be liable to prosecution,” he cautioned.

He said the police would be doing all it could to protect the lives of innocent, law abiding persons.

In the meantime, Joseph appealed to anyone with information and who might know who was behind Sunday morning’s fatal incident to pass that information on to the police.

The commanding officer stood firm in his decision that, once crime is taking place in an area, such as shootings, and murder, no permits would be approved for parties in the vicinity.

“So, it is in your best interest to assist the police to apprehend and to see to it that there’s some semblance of law and order within your community,” he said.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com