Woman shot dead while playing cards

This country has recorded its second murder for the year, following the shooting death of 19-year-old Alvisha Browne of Ottley Hall on Wednesday, January 4.{{more}}

Browne, a mother of three, was at a shop in the area when a gunman fired one shot, hitting her in the left side of her head.

The incident occurred shortly after 7:00 p.m.

An eyewitness to the crime said that he was sitting close to the deceased playing cards when he heard a loud explosion.

“It was about six ah we, and when I hear the shot, I just had to put my hands by me ears and run out from under the shed. When I do so, they say look the girl pon the ground dey.”

The visibly shaken and upset man said that he found it strange that in an area which had over a dozen persons milling about, no one saw the shooter.

“You war tell me this place was full ah people and nobody see where the man run go?”

Uriah Boyce, owner of the shop, told SEARCHLIGHT that he was tending to customer when he said he heard a loud bang.

“I was under here making some change when I heard a loud sound and den somebody say somebody dead,” Boyce said.

He further explained that there was no argument, or commotion.

Boyce said that he knew the deceased as a young girl growing up in the area and that she frequented the area, but was never known to be involved in any altercation.

“It’s a sad, sad, sad story,” he lamented.

“It’s a sad story to know how young people living in Ottley Hall,” he continued.

The distressed man joined in with other villagers who were present at the crime scene in saying that they had had enough of the violence in the area.

“I don’t want to run a business in Ottley Hall,” he said, adding that he had been operating his business in the area since 1998.

Boyce said that he had been living in the area for a while and did not like the way it had become.

“I never used to be scared, but now you always have to have someone watching your back.”

He said that there was a shooting a short distance from his shop about two months ago and he had already decided that he was not going to stock back his shop.

As police conducted preliminary investigations amidst the wails and sobs of the majority of women present, residents of the crime plagued community, more commonly known by its unfortunate nickname of ‘Baghdad’, expressed frustration with the crime situation, which seems to be overwhelming the community.

“I am tired of all the shooting going on around here. Every night is gunshots ringing out in the area and every minute is somebody going hospital with gunshots.”

“It is getting out of hand,” indicated one community member, who said that persons are also being targeted because of their affiliation with one group or another.

“If they see you talking to one set of fellas, they think you are in a gang with them. That girl might have she ways, but she didn’t deserve to die like that.”

Villagers are calling for a greater police presence in the area.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines recorded its first murder for the year on January 1, when Junior Lowman, 23, of Georgetown, died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital a week after he was allegedly thrown into a large cauldron of boiling water. (JJ/DD)