Man gunned down outside home

Last week Thursday, the community of Upper New Montrose was startled by several gunshots ringing out in the night. When some ventured outside to see what had happened, they discovered one of their own lying lifeless on the ground outside his home.

According to family and neighbours, the deceased, 39-year-old Andre ‘Sweat’ Chewitt, was not{{more}} known to be in conflict or dispute with anyone, so it came as a shock when word spread that he had been gunned down.

SEARCHLIGHT visited the area and spoke to Rolisha Roberts, the aunt of Chewitt’s six-year-old daughter.

“To me, he was good; I never heard about him getting in anything. When this happened, everybody was shocked!”

Roberts said that at the time of the incident, which occurred sometime after 9 p.m. on July 23, Chewitt’s daughter was spending time with relatives on the Windward side of the island, where she would regularly stay when her father was busy with work duties at the West Kingstown Unity Labour Party (ULP) constituency office.

Referring to the child, Roberts further noted: “She understands everything that’s going on. She seems to be okay, because this morning she messaged me and tell me that we mustn’t stress about that, because every time she remembers, she cries. So she doesn’t want us to be stressing over it.”

Deborah Alexander-Charles, ULP candidate for West Kingstown, described the deceased as a “good soul” and “irreplaceable soldier”, and said that words cannot describe the “deep, profound grief” that she has experienced since hearing about Chewitt’s death.

For the past two weeks, Chewitt had been working with Alexander-Charles and Michael DaSilva, as part of a team going through the constituency to ensure that persons were not taken off the voters’ list when they should remain on it.

A statement from the ULP West Kingstown party group read: “We knew ‘Sweat’ as a quiet, polite, always respectful person who was known throughout Kingstown as an activist for ULP in West Kingstown. We do not know the circumstances surrounding this incident, however, our hearts are heavy because he was an ally and good friend of the Debbie Charles campaign.

“We continue to pray that wisdom and good sense will prevail in this country of ours and that differences or disagreements can be settled in a peaceful manner. This is a campaign that is under the banner of God and we pray that his soul would find eternal peace. Rest in peace.”

A neighbour confided to SEARCHLIGHT that some time ago, Chewitt had disclosed that someone was “out to kill him,” but had never said who the person was nor why.

Yesterday, head of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force Superintendent Ruth Jacobs told SEARCHLIGHT that no one had been arrested in connection with the incident, nor was anyone assisting police with their investigations.

A post mortem was scheduled to be carried out yesterday, July 27. Initial reports indicate that Chewitt received multiple gunshot wounds to his body.