KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Tuesday July 22, 2014, CMC – Two men were shot and injured in Walvaroo, Sion Hill, a community east of here, on Sunday in the latest in a series of shooting incidents that have escalated since June.
The police report that shortly after 11 pm a lone gunman on foot fired several shots at a group of men at a shop in the community.
Kingsley Thomas, 49, a building contractor of Belair received a bullet wound to his head, while Brian Douglas, 51, a resident of Walvaroo received a bullet wound to his left leg.
Both men were taken to hospital.
On July 14, two men were shot and killed and two others injured in a drive-by shooting in Evesham around 7:30 p.m.
The deaths brought to 24 the number of killings in the country so far this year and the sixth since June 12.
Guns were used in the last 17 killings.
It is widely speculated that persons are being killed over a cocaine transaction that reportedly went sour.
Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Ralph Gonsalves said last he has read the reports about cocaine falling into the hands of people for whom it was not intended.
“… I see everybody reporting, saying it’s a fight in relation to — I read the report, I am not telling you what I got from the police, but I read the reports — that you say that some cocaine might have landed on the beach and somebody took it who wasn’t supposed to get it and he who was supposed to get it is battling the one who actually got it,” the Prime Minister said.
“When I say we live in a dangerous neighbourhood, this again illustrates the fact that we are in a conduit for drugs, cocaine. We produce the marijuana here but that is not what is the focus for the real money spinning. The focus of the real money spinning is the cocaine,” he further said.
It is not yet clear if there’s a connection between the recent shooting incident and those that began in June.
