Cops work on tracking down witnesses
(CNS): The RCIPS has said that “very few parties have voluntarily come forward with information” on the two recent murders in George Town, in which two men were killed and eight other people wounded in a spate of gun violence. But police are doing the work to track down those who were present at the two scenes. So far, eight arrests have been made in relation to the various shootings over the last few weeks and one man remains in custody under investigation. However, no one has been charged.
“Witnesses are being traced but it is a long exhaustive exercise,” a spokesperson for the RCIPS told CNS Tuesday. “The investigations need witnesses in order to progress and serve justice to the victims and the community.”
As the police work to find people who may have seen something that can help them find the killers, investigators said they are keeping an open mind about connections between the shootings that have happened since the beginning of June and what has motivated this serious increase in violence.
“Investigators have approached the investigations with an open mind, however, there is no evidence that indicates a connection to the incident that took place on 5 June,” police said, referring to the shooting in the Jungle Bar on West Bay Road and the first in this recent stretch of gun crime.
“Although it appears that the incidents may involve persons affiliated with gangs in the Cayman Islands, the RCIPS cannot conclusively state that the shootings are as a result of gang activities and grievances. There appears to be various vendettas and disputes between the rival parties.”
The police also told CNS that they are unable to give out information regarding descriptions of suspects at this stage in these investigations.
Speaking to the Compass last week, Deputy Police Commissioner Kurt Walton implied that there was only one gunman in last Thursday’s shooting at Vic’s Bar, when he said the indiscriminate shooting had started outside before the gunman followed his targets inside the bar and continued firing. He said it was not a random attack as the CCTV inside shows the shooter had continued firing at his targets as they lay on the floor of the bar.
Anyone with information or who was present at the locations of the shootings is urged to call
649-2930.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
this should never been announce!!!!!
all that money government pays a certain security company for cctv. what’s the sense
Maybe you should find the person that recorded it on their cell phone and posted it online.
I doubt they posted it online. I’m sure they recorded it, sent it to one or two ‘trusted’ friends or family members, then it mushroomed, then it got to Marl road, and the rest is history.
If RCIPS cannot successfully investigate officers shooting themselves in the foot, then we’re in trouble.
Why were CCTV cameras not witness to this carnage? To add, $50K is a pittance if one’s funeral expenses are taken out of it.
Been 2 years and I am yet to get back my vehicle that was stolen 100 and 400 feet from the nearest CCTV towers.
Corruption, incompetence, or both?
Maybe if the witnesses were allowed to own a gun themselves they would have a little more courage. As it stands they have to become informants against armed criminals who have shown they will shoot you and worse they have to rely on the police to protect them. Hell of a situation it is.
Surely you’re not suggesting that more civilians own and carry guns? We sure as hell do not want to go down the same road as the USA.
We are already down the road of the US, except law abiding citizens are unarmed.
You’re not going down the road of the USA, you are going down the road of Kingston Jamaica
Well it’s better we go down the road to Jamaica than America.
Imagine active shootings in places like schools and places like caymana bay especially on a small island like this.
You sir/ma’am need to stop spewing your ignorant hate and deal with the facts.
Clearly if criminals wanted to shoot up a school or Camana Bay they are equiped with the hardware. Have you missed that? The criminals have guns. Who doesn’t have guns? Non criminals. You probably won’t find a small town with a similar population as Cayman with a fraction of the gun crime yet it’s likely that the majority of the citizens are armed.
People here cannot handle small automatic transmission vehicles. Guns among the general population would be the biggest cluster ever!
I’m quite happy with guns generally being illegal here. The penalties are stiff. If you have one, you’re an idiot. It’s likely you’ll not use it, and in the meantime aggravated offenses ramp up the years in northward. If you do use it, it’s likely the victim will be a fellow idiot. Usually win/win.
I always wondered why police usually chase away the witnesses from the crime scene rather than trying to talk to some of them immediately after it has taken place and see if they could give any info rather than waiting till days or weeks later?
Because the Jamaican cops are incompetent and have no clue on how to handle a crime scene.
Listen send out the video of the guy thats shooting maybe then people can identify him for you by what he wearing his walk etc.
My educated guess is they don’t have one. There is however a horrific one showing the aftermath which needs to be public. Too many people in Cayman are sheltered from this reality, it’s easier to sweep it under the rug, in time people easily forget and there will be another one or two.
Other people are not “sheltered” from this activity. They choose not to go to shitty dump bars in the wee hours of the morning when things like this are known to happen or to post pictures of themselves brandishing guns online!
And no it’s not the school, or government, or society that are failing these young men (and women) its is the parents, or sadly in Cayman the lack of parents.
I wonder whether the AG mightn’t try some creative thinking here by addressing the whole problem of evidence. Maybe alter the burden of proof in cases where guns are involved from “beyond all reasonable doubt” to “on a balance of probabilities”, or be more amenable to circumstantial evidence in such cases. In other words, deliberately make it easier, or more accurately less difficult, for prosecutions of gun and gang crimes to succeed without necessarily having to rely on understandably reluctant eye-witnesses.
Yeah – lets just tear up the whole basis of jurisprudence in criminal cases because the RCIPS finds it difficult. Hell, why don’t you just amend the law to say the suspect has to prove his innocence. As for the AG having the power to do that – oh boy. Did the concealment of evidence issues in the Doctors Express trial not give you even a hint of concern as to the impartiality, let alone honesty, of the authorities and the critical importance of separation between the four estates?
It’s difficult in every jurisdiction to tackle a shooting and worse here because the cops are useless and shuting the gate after the horse has bolted is always too late. They need a vigorous proactive operation to track the guns through intelligence led policing. Stopping the people who are connected regularly, searching their vehicles and homes. Connecting them to gangs and the ‘hangers on’ where the guns will most likely be hidden. Working with Customs to stiffen the border and searching more craft coming from Jamaica. Work with Jamaican authorities to source intelligence. Waiting until someone is dead before you act is never a good plan. If they didn’t have intelligence before these shootings what the xxxx are they doing? And if they did but didn’t act on it, again, what the xxxx are they doing. They need a root and branch review by HMICFRS from the UK to make them do their bloody jobs and keep people safe.
https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/about-us/who-we-are/
That’s the problem now their putting all their focus on Jamaica when everything is coming from the north of us.
Jobs, food, opportunity, knowledge, investment, and money come from up north. Other stuff comes from the South and East.
Witnesses at a bar at 2am; there should be some reliable ones whose memory wasn’t impaired to the 10th degree?
It’s almost as though people don’t trust the RCIPS to keep them safe. Odd!
Like someone mentioned before they cannot even be trusted to keep a drugs evidence container from being ransacked in their own compound. At least in their new location they have a bank vault, but are they using it?
RCIPS: Please provide us informtion if you have any on the suspects
also RCIPS: yeah i cant tell you what the suspects look like.
Thanks bobo
So you’re suggestion is that people who saw gunmen firing indiscriminately in a crowded bar would not realize that these were the suspects without having a further description to jog their memory?
People at 2am at a bar probably cant remember anything because most people at bars at 2am are upside down drunk.
Also, doesn’t help that there are killers amongst us with an AK or AR15 in their possession so its going to be pretty much impossible for them to get anyone to talk to them on this.
Not so much they have an automatic weapon, but they are prepared to shoot not just their targets but anyone in the vicinity. Doesn’t bode well for a witness, no sirree.