Rillan Hill residents say ‘wrong clothes’ resulted in killing of challenged man

On Monday night, June 19, around 10.45, two gun toting men, one masked, one wearing a bucket hat, emerged from a white Suzuki Swift, registration number RN309 and opened fire.

The result? The death of a challenged Rillan Hill resident Nigel “Urk” Louie, a 39-year-old man who residents say was a hard worker and was in the wrong place at the wrong time dressed in the wrong clothing.

“Right now everyone around here real, real, real vex. All that man use to do is work, drink he rum … he never trouble a soul and he wasn’t to get all them bullets he get,” a relative of the deceased man told SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday while standing in the area where Louie was shot.

According to the resident who spoke on condition of anonymity, Louie was hanging with friends in an area known for “nice time” because of the presence of two shops in close proximity.

The man said he and some other men observed a car in the area but paid it no mind until it stopped a few feet from where several persons were sitting on a bench and two gun wielding individuals stepped out and began firing shots at Louie who tried to run.

After Louie was shot and lay dying in a gutter, one of the men, the one wearing the mask, went over him and shot him in the back, uttering the words “you nah hear”, before walking up to two other men (who did not get the opportunity to run), and used the handle of the pistol he carried to strike them in their heads.

“He gun butt two man who been dey and tell them get off the block before he kill them too, and then the man them go back in the car and drive off,” the distraught resident said.

One of men who was struck told SEARCHLIGHT he has never experienced that level of violence and he thinks that they are all lucky to be alive.

“The man hit me and me brethren in we head and tell we move from here before he kill we. I feel lucky all I get is my head bump up,” said the shaken man who did not want to give his name.

A relative of the slain man said if he has his way he would not settle for what happened to his family member as he was also in the hang out area and ran when the shooting started.

One woman said Louie was a member of her family and he was a kind and hard working person who did not become involved in any sort of violence so it is obvious that it was a case of mistaken identity.

A man who said he saw everything as it played out, is of the opinion that the gunmen received a phone call and shot Louie by mistake as he (Louie) was dressed similarly, in black/dark clothing, to whom most think was the intended target.

“When the shooting started the man (alleged intended target) just get up and cut (local slang for run), so like everyone else while Louie get about 18 to 19 shots, all in he back,” the angry man said, while noting that the car sped off in the direction of Kingstown.

“Nobody around here, nobody at all like what happened,” the resident stressed, while noting that Louie died bad at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH).

“He tripe (colloquial term for intestines) come out all thing. That man don’t do nobody nothing,” the angry man told SEARCHLIGHT.

Louie is the 23rd homicide victim in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) for 2023.

[Updated June 26, 2023 @ 11:21 am to change the model of the vehicle from Mazda Swift to Suzuki Swift]