Barrouallie teenager is first homicide for 2008

YOUTH SHOT DEAD

Some residents of Barrouallie seem to want that town to live up to the “Wild, Wild West” label it was recently given. That town recorded the first homicide in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) for 2008.{{more}}

Last Sunday at around 7:40 a.m., the body of 18-year-old Titus Henville of Pierre Hughes was found lying in a foot path at Keartons Hill, with bullet wounds to his chest; the body was found by 17-year-old Rayburn Dickson.

Keartons Hill residents reported that around 8:15 pm Saturday, a gun shot was heard, but no one paid any serious attention, as sounds of gun shots are a regular occurrence in the neighbourhood.

Asha Dickson told SEARCHLIGHT that around 6:55 pm on Saturday, Titus came to her house and told her boyfriend, who is his uncle, that he was going to the shop to buy wrapping paper. That was the last time he was seen alive. “Boy don’t trouble nobody,” she further stated.

Up until recently, Titus had been living in Pierre Hughes with his mother. About one month ago, he moved into a two-room wooden shack owned by his uncle who migrated to Canada. One Pierre Hughes neighbour who wishes to remain anonymous said, “He was like a son to me, and when I asked him if he not afraid they will do him something over dey, he just smiled and said, Na”.

Cindy Henville told SEARCHLIGHT that when she heard that her first born was dead she felt as if her breath had left her body. “It is very hard on the whole family,” she said “but we will have to try and cope”.

Last year around Easter, a two-week spate of shootings in Barrouallie left one man dead, another man with his left leg amputated, the result of gunshot wounds, and yet another man had to have his left arm amputated after he had been shot.

Barrouallie residents say that these shootings are as a result of gang activities and that they see no end in sight, unless something drastic is done to arrest the situation.