The death of Germani Charles is said to have come as no surprise to some residents of Long Wall.

On Tuesday, May 2, one of these residents told SEARCHLIGHT that the dead man was displaying signs of mental illness for a while and was known as a violent person who would attack without warning.

Charles, of Long Wall, Kingstown, was shot dead late Sunday night at his home. The 27-year-old was found with gunshot wounds lying in the doorway of his home at around 10:30 p.m.

The resident, who preferred to not reveal his identity, said on the day Charles was killed, he had stabbed an Upper Bay Street resident in his back with a knife during a physical altercation.

He said that Charles had several run-ins with persons in the area of Upper Bay Street known as “Uptown”, and he was also recently involved in a physical altercation in the Heritage Square area.

The resident also said that Charles was known to always carry a knife and, on more than one occasion, brandished it at persons, even at one point attacking a relative without warning.

“He should have been in the mental home,” the man stressed while adding that a system needs to be put in place to deal with persons with these issues.

Charles’s mother told SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday that she was not in the frame of mind to speak about what happened to her son then.

The police are carrying out investigations into the death of Charles. In a release the police said acting on information received, officers from the Major Crimes Unit went to the residence of the deceased “and found him lifeless with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds about his body”.

They are asking anyone with information which can help in the investigations to contact the police.

Sunday’s killing of Charles brought the homicide rate for 2023 to 15, with five of these homicides having been committed in April.

On Tuesday, April 11, Jomo “Top Dog” Brudy died after he was shot at around 7.30 p.m. the previous day while sitting on a bench outside a shop he operated in Pole Yard.

On Friday April 14, Michael “Cat” Richards, a 47 year-old businessman of Ottley Hall was shot and killed allegedly by two hooded gunmen sometime before 10:00 p.m. in Queen’s Drive.

On Tuesday April 25, at around 10:00 a.m., Dave Sutton of Langley Park was shot in Georgetown and died. Jamal Benjie, a labourer of Georgetown has been charged with murder in relation to this incident.

On Thursday April 27, Dominic Pierre, a mentally unstable man, was shot and killed by police in Sharpes, Chateaubelair sometime after 12:00 p.m.