Dead man’s home ransacked by police, family distressed (+Video)

A group of police officers has been accused of adding to the distress of a murder victim’s family after they destroyed the front door of the dead man’s humble dwelling and ransacked the small wooden house.

Mitchelle Wilson, the mother of gunshot victim Delarno Kyle Corney Patrick alias ‘Smoke’, said she is baffled as to why the police smashed the door and damaged the contents of the small board house her son occupied, when he was the victim and had died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) about 9 hours before what she considers a nonsensical raid/search.

Patrick, 33, of Layou, was shot at about 1 a.m. on Sunday, October 15, in Middle Street, Layou. Patrick was on his way home when he was accosted and shot about 10 times about his body.

He was transported to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) and succumbed to his injuries at about 2 a.m., making him this country’s 42nd homicide victim for 2023.

The deceased man’s mother resides in Barbados and flew to St Vincent after she heard her son had been shot and killed. She said when she came to her son’s home, she found the door broken off and the contents of his home strewn all over the small house.

“All the house dig up,” said the bereaved woman who said her son lived alone.

“He dead and he in the hospital mortuary. I don’t see why Black Squad (Rapid Response Unit) do this,” Wilson said of the search which took place on Sunday morning.

“They destroyed the deceased’s house. Nobody in there, they have no warrant, nothing, they just break of the door, open all the windows. The house dig up right now you could go and see inside there.

“I can’t get to go in to look for my son documents; the ID card, the passport, nothing. I feel real bad and I call one the police and ask them how they will just go in the house and break up like this,” Wilson told SEARCHLIGHT, while adding that she was promised a call back by an officer, but up to press time had not received that call.

“I can’t understand this,” Wilson commented.

A neighbour of the dead man said he and some other people were on the block near Patrick’s home when police officers swarmed the area and began behaving in what he considers a “very aggressive” manner.

He said he was told to leave the area and later ran away, but not before seeing officers charge their weapons while one of them stormed a house and confronted Patrick’s mentally unstable brother.

“I said officers aryo don’t kill he, he not right,” the man said on the condition of anonymity, while adding that he had to leave a breadfruit he was roasting behind.

“I don’t understand why they get on so, we just been dey stand up,” said the man.

Another resident told SEARCHLIGHT that he is of the opinion that police hoped to find illegal items at the dead man’s house, similar to how they found a 9 mm pistol and six rounds of ammunition at the home of Jamal Finch, alias “Cribbit” of Sion Hill, on Sunday, September 10, two days after he was shot and killed on Friday, September 8 in Mala Village at about 11:55 pm.

“But come like there is a saying, lightning don’t strike in the same place twice,” the resident said, adding that even though police thought something was illegal in the house, they could have simply removed the lock and not break off the entire door.

“Is Smoke got killed, he is the victim, so why put his family through that. Is not like is he do anybody anything so they could have respect the man little place,” the resident said while adding that nothing was found in the house.

“You think anybody here like how the police moved? The man place ain’t nothing to brag about but is someone property still,” the resident further added, while noting that persons should be allowed to mourn in peace without this sort of “weird” approach to a victim’s home by the police.

Meanwhile, a postmortem examination is expected to be carried out on Patrick today and investigators are asking persons with information that can assist with this investigation to come forward.