Contract-killer challenge

WESTERN BUREAU:

“It was a contract killing,” says Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang of the drive-by shooting that left two persons dead, including three-year-old Kamoill Williams Jr, in Cascade, Hanover, on Wednesday, April 20.

Dr Chang said that while Cascade is one of the safest communities in the parish and, by extension, across the island, contract killers and those involved in lottery scamming activities are migrating to rural communities and making them dangerous for others as they attempt to elude the security forces.

Three-year-old Kamoill Williams Jr, and 27-year-old Tavares Stevens, otherwise called ‘T’, were shot and killed in Hilloughby’s district, Cascade.

Reports by the Lucea police are that at about 7:10 p.m., Stevens, the child, and another male who received gunshot injuries were among a group of persons at a shop when a Toyota Axio motor car drove into the area and the occupants of the vehicle rolled down the windows and opened fire at them.

The vehicle with the gunmen sped away from the scene as they made good their escape. Residents rushed the three injured victims to hospital, where Stevens was pronounced dead, and young Kamoill later succumbed to injuries after being admitted to intensive care.

Since then, the police have reported that two persons are in custody in relation to the incident, which they had earlier reported as being a case of reprisal.

TOO FREQUENT

“This kind of brutal killing has become too frequent, especially in the last six months or so where (gunmen in) vehicles tend to drive by an event or a shop and just shoot up whoever is there,” said Dr Chang, following a visit to the crime scene, where he met and offered comfort to the grieving families late on Saturday.

“What has emerged there is the increasing use of contract killers. It’s a relatively new phenomenon in terms of the level of its use,” he said.

The national security minister said that where there is crime and killers, there are always some guns for hire.

“But what we’re seeing now is that it’s becoming almost the norm and standard operation where the scammers who are involved have a level of intelligence and want to maintain a level of respectability, stay far from the gun and hire those who they can find,” Dr Chang said.

A CHALLENGE FOR POLICE

He pointed out that this situation with contract killers poses a challenge for the police and increases the risk in communities.

“It requires a level of intensity of information that we don’t have at this point. It is an area where the police High Command can look at how they can redeploy their resources and also develop areas of intelligence to begin with and to anticipate some of these activities,” noted Dr Chang.

He said contract killings have increased, especially in the last six months, and are being conducted by people who are not from the area in which they take place.

“They tend to shoot at random, at a public space, at events, and even though they might kill the one they came for, several other people are injured,” Dr Chang explained. “The contract killers are there to kill. They often don’t know the person they are looking for, and they also make mistakes, and innocent people standing by get killed.”

Acknowledging the strain on law-abiding citizens, Dr Chang says the security forces will be tweaking strategies to stop contract killers in their tracks.

“The entire leadership of the security forces recognise the problem and will be looking at how we can develop different tactical approaches and approach the intelligence to deal with what is a very serious disease,” he noted.