ESCAPEE SHOT DEAD

Could he have been brought in alive instead of dead, with bullet wounds about his body?

This is one of the chief questions the public has been asking since news broke early last Saturday morning of the shooting death of escaped prisoner Artelus Vincent. The Layou man who was serving a ten-year sentence at Her Majesty’s Prisons for a manslaughter charge was shot dead on Friday, January 12, 2007, in his home town, three days after he escaped custody. He escaped while working with other prisoners on the leeward side of the island.{{more}}

SEARCHLIGHT contacted the police on the matter but they had very few answers to give.

All that was disclosed was that there had been an operation between officers of the local constabulary and Her Majesty’s Prison to recapture the 34-year-old escaped prisoner and in the process he died. The police also disclosed that an investigation has been launched into the man’s death.

When contacted, Vincent’s aunt, Madeline Hazelwood and her common-law husband Kenroy Browne, gave a chilling account of Vincent’s shooting death that took place in their Layou home three days after he went on the run.

Browne recounted that last Friday evening he had just arrived from his farm and was about to take in the SVG TV evening news when the dogs began to bark.

“I said dog shut up yuh nah wary bark. I drop my clothes right here so. Soon as I do so, one, two, (as in make two footsteps inside the kitchen area) I hear a big explosion down in the flat down there where they building a house,” said Browne.

He explained: “I done know the police around and the guy don’t come here and mi nah have cocoa ah doh so mi nar ah look rain.

“I went in the bedroom and in a short space of time I hear a foot run in the kitchen. I come out back here (kitchen) and see Artelus standing there (near to the sink). I say like this Artelus go to f— out the kitchen. Soon as I say that and Artelus step out I glimpse the mangoose come up and he say yuh mother f—– ah killing yuh. From the time mi hear that I fly in back the bedroom. When I dey in there I hear bo dow and mi hey bo dow again and I cover my ears,” Browne recalled.

Browne said a short while after his common-law wife called him to ensure that everything was ok with him. He recounted that by the time he joined her in the living room Vincent was on the ground crying in anguish and blood as well as flesh were splattered all over the wall.

“I come out and I started to talk, a police knock me down in the chair there. He said all yuh like harbour f—— criminals. All I could do is sit down there and watch the man bawl as he beg his auntie for some water,” said Browne while stressing that the dying man never got the water to quench his thirst. Browne stated that there might have been 15-20 officers at their home, some decked in black outfits while others were clad in camouflage.

Hazelwood on the other hand, reminisced witnessing the incident from the living room. The grieving aunt exclaimed that she was so scared that she defecated.

“I see when they give him the first bullet and he drop on the ground. Then I see when a man come over him and give him the next two bullets. Oh God my whole house was full of blood. I can’t finish clean up blood,” said Hazelwood who explained that Vincent’s first bullet might have been from a shotgun.

Upon the police’s demand, Hazelwood said a sheet was provided to wrap Vincent’s body before he was whisked away.