Three men shot at Pole Yard, one succumbs to his injuries

Two of the three men shot in Pole Yard on Thursday, March 3 were the targets of gunmen in the past, one of them having been shot on two separate occasions and another once before.
 
The shooting which took place at about 11:20 p.m. left St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) with its sixth homicide for 2022 as 47-year-old Owen “Kenny” Stoddard died from his injuries. 

The two other men, Jomo “Top Dog” Brudy and Randolph “Bruce Lee” Samuel were taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) where they were treated and said to be in stable condition up to press time.  

According to a police report, on the date in question, several persons were at a shop in Pole Yard, Arnos Vale when an assailant appeared at the shop door and opened fire on them.  

Stoddard, of Paul’s Avenue; Brudy of Edinboro/Arnos Vale, and Samuel of Lowmans Hill all received multiple gunshot wounds about their bodies. 

This was the second time that Stoddard was being shot.  

On Tuesday February 11, 2020, Stoddard received a summons instructing him to attend court on Wednesday, February 12 in relation to a matter where he said his life was threatened by a former business associate.  

Later that day at around 8:00 p.m. while walking to his Pole Yard home, he was allegedly accosted by two men. One of them is said to have pointed a firearm at him and the other one searched his pockets, relieving him of EC$60 in cash, his cellular phone and the court summons.  

He told SEARCHLIGHT back then that he attempted to look at his attackers’ faces and got the impression that “the man like he wah blow off my head, so I dash way and run and get the bullet in my foot.”  

He said then that he did not know his attackers, but he could tell they were young men. 

“Them young man need to go look for work. I is ah old criminal more than them but I just trying to behave myself. They need to go and look for work because the same how they stick me up, the gun go turn back pon them the same way,” the labourer had said.
  
Brudy also is no stranger to gunshots having been shot twice before last Thursday.  

On December 3, 2008, Brudy was walking in Ottley Hall with a female Edinboro resident, Shereen Clouden when someone shot both of them. Clouden died after being shot in the back of the head and Brudy’s eye was damaged by what some said was a shotgun pellet.
 
On November 2, 2012 Atiba Bess, a 20-year-old Ottley Hall man, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter in relation to this shooting while another man was acquitted.  

On May 8, 2009, Brudy was shot once again, this time in his scrotum. This happened one day after he gave testimony in the preliminary inquiry into Clouden’s murder. He was outside his Edinboro home when a gunman shot him.  

On Thursday, July 9, 2009 Uroy “Labay” Robertson of Evesham and Ottley Hall was remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) for discharging a loaded firearm at Brudy, Alfonzo Davy and Terron Prince of Edinboro, and causing actual bodily harm to Rocky Richards of Edinboro, on May 8, 2009.  

On September 2, 2012 at Walveroo, Robertson, 24 at the time, suffered a single gunshot to the left side of his head which destroyed his brain, and lodged in his right cheek. He was killed less than an hour after he was released from police custody.  

He was the main witness in the Christmas day 2007 death of Lloyd “Lazo” Samuel, also known as Lazarus. Samuel died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH), after being shot in Redemption Sharpes on December 21 that year.   

Two Redemption Sharpes men, Che ‘Ragga’ Bute and Azarri ‘Nines’ Ash are currently serving life sentences for Samuel’s murder but their sentences have been appealed since the main witness in the case, Robertson, was murdered.  

Brudy also is no stranger to the law. On May 8 2012, after eight months in prison, he was cleared of the murder of Rilland Hill CD vendor, Shawn Gordon. Gordon was discovered face down with a gunshot wound to the left side of his head in an area known as Neverson Gap, Edinboro, at 9:15 p.m. on December 19, 2010. 

Charges for Gordon’s murder were withdrawn against Brudy and Dwayne Banfield, and that left another man, Devron St John facing the murder charge on his own. Before Brudy and Banfield were freed, they gave testimony for the prosecution. 

Later, in 2012 St. John was acquitted of the murder but on July 16, 2015 sometime after 8:00 p.m. along the Richmond Hill public road, someone shot the 26-year-old Ottley Hall resident in his throat. He died on the spot.   

As it relates to Thursday’s shooting at Pole Yard, the police are asking persons with information that can assist with the investigations to contact any police station or police officer with whom they are comfortable.