Shotgun blast to head claims Barrouallie youth

On the heels of a 16-year-old youth losing his life after being stabbed about the body with a pair of scissors, another young man has died, this time from a shotgun blast to the head.{{more}}

The body of 21-year-old Steven “Bolo” Charles of Barrouallie was discovered in some bushes not too far from the Central Leeward Secondary School at Peter’s Hope, after persons in the area reported hearing a loud boom at about 8:35 yesterday morning.

One individual, who arrived at the scene early, told SEARCHLIGHT that the impact of the gunshot removed the upper part of Charles’ head and its contents.

As friends, relatives, and the curious approached the area, already cordened off by police tape, one woman, who identified herself as a cousin of the young man, said that she was saddened and hurt by his death.

The teary-eyed woman said that she would usually see Charles every morning, but found it strange that he did not come by her house that day.“He would usually pass through my yard every morning when he going bush, but today was the only morning Bolo didn’t pass by,” she said.

“He just stay from out the road and shout me, but I didn’t get to see him this time.”

Charles’ strange attitude was apparent to another female with whom he interacted later that morning.

She said that after the young man had breakfast, he made two attempts to leave the yard before finally going with another individual.

“He drink some tea and eat two bread, and then he went in the fridge and get a bottle of cold water.

“After he left the house, he come out the yard then turn back and say ‘I don’t feel to go,’” the woman told SEARCHLIGHT.

“Then he sit down in the yard and asked for some rice, and after he get it, he sit back down.

“The third time he get up and say ‘Ok, me gone.’’’

The woman said that Charles promised to trim the yard when he returned from the mountains.

According to the woman, about ten minutes later, while tending to some cocoa on the top of her house, she heard the gunshot.

She said that shortly after, the individual with whom Charles left, returned to tell her their friend had been killed, and she called the police.

SEARCHLIGHT understands that Charles, who had four brothers and three sisters, entered the Barrouallie Secondary School (now the Central Leeward Secondary) in September 2005, but remained there for one term only, before dropping out.

Persons at the scene of the crime described Charles as a friendly person, who would only become angry if he was interfered with.

Police investigators at the scene told SEARCHLIGHT they were yet to determine a supect or suspects, and a motive for the killing.

Charles’ death brings the number of homicides in St Vincent and the Grenadines for the year to 25.