‘Lights at refurb B/Ball court averted more deaths’ - Rymer on HG shooting
The territory recorded its first murder of the year when Erran Charles, 34 years, was killed and a 17-year-old wounded after a gunman fired shots in the direction where a group of young men were playing dominos while others stood nearby. Charles was one of the onlookers.
Our investigations revealed that the 34-year-old and the teen were not believed to be the target of the shooting, however, they both were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In an interview on JTV’s The Big Story (TBS) election edition with Ms Cathy O. Richards, Mr Rymer recounted the fateful night when he said, had their not been lights beaming from the refurbished basketball court, even worst could have happened.
“The shooting actually took place by the bathroom... The guys were there playing dominos and the young man was there just looking on based on what I was told. The assailant came up from the Ghut and started firing and unfortunately he [Charles] lost his life,” Mr Rymer to the TBS.
Charles Repainted Court
According to Mr Rymer, he knew Charles having played basketball with him a few weeks ago, but even more, the dead man was one of the persons who assisted in the repainting of the basketball court some weeks ago.
“Based on what I was told, if the court wasn’t lit last night (Sunday night) I am sure more persons may have been injured because the assailant… if he actually wanted to target someone, if there weren’t any lights maybe more persons would have been injured,” he said.
Mr Rymer further stated that he was at home relaxing when he received a call from one of his friends asking if he heard the shots, “I actually didn’t hear the shots, but I was home relaxing and within a few minutes I heard the ambulance and I was praying, I was like, I hope the ambulance was not going where they say they heard the shots came from.”
He said the ambulance first stopped at the Road Town Police Station first and he subsequently received another phone call informing him of what had occurred, “I was saddened. I actually left home and went down to the site and when I got there I actually saw the young man lying there.”
More Border Security Needed – Rymer
Combating some of the social ills facing youths and others in the territory, Mr Rymer said it is time to take a comprehensive look at things especially at how weapons are entering the territory.
“We need to look at protecting our borders and understanding whether we tackle technology in terms of doing more x-rays, in terms of the cargos that come into the territory or more border security. We have to look at what is taking place,” he said.
“I understand that the shooting stemmed from an incident that took place the night before… based on what the reports say, it was because of some stolen chain at a night club,” he revealed.
He insisted, “What we need to do is to try to engage our youths. We must prepare them for what the future holds for them, we need to put programmes in place.”
11 Responses to “‘Lights at refurb B/Ball court averted more deaths’ - Rymer on HG shooting”
Create business that they want to do, not what we want them to do.
That’s how you get them to think, then they will have to adapt to other business minded areas just to progress if they want to be successful.
lack of water, the farmers @ paraquita bay constantly said they had no water for their plants.
Let them grow a plant they love, they will care for those plants like a real child and produce quality produce.