People ran for cover Sunday night as shooters invaded the Westhall Group in Vieux Fort and started firing, terrified residents said.
According to the residents, when the sound of gunfire subsided, one man was dead, and a woman sustained injuries to her leg.
Vieux Fort police received the shooting report at about 9:30 pm and discovered a motionless man with multiple torso wounds along a concrete path.
A medical practitioner later pronounced him dead.
The police also encountered a woman in her fifties who had sustained injuries to her leg.
Emergency personnel transported her to a medical facility in stable condition.
One terrified Vieux Fort resident recalled hearing multiple gunshots while in his home.
“”I just run and hide. Bullets pass through my home,”” the Westhall Group man told St. Lucia Times.
He said the shooting initially lasted for about fifteen minutes but resumed after a lull and continued intermittently for about half an hour.
The resident estimated that the gunfire lasted for a total of about thirty minutes.
“Automatic fire, single, twelve gauge, rifle – everything was there eh,” he disclosed.
The man, who lives in a wall and concrete house, said he sought shelter in the concrete part of the residence.
He was grateful that his children were at their mother’s home then.
The shaken man feared that stray bullets might have hit the children.
He explained that the shooting had affected his business.
The resident told St. Lucia Times the shooting occurred while a party was in full swing in the neighbourhood.
“Dem man come and do they thing. They had children outside, elders outside,”” he recalled.
Initial reports indicated that while the party was in progress, a group of shooters opened fire.
The resident told St. Lucia Times he did not feel safe in the community but did not intend to leave.
“I ain’t running from my community. Dem man that have to try and settle themselves, try and fix dey business deh cos dat not making no sense,” he stated.
With the latest fatal shooting in Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia has recorded eight homicides for 2024.
Just last week, police commissioner Crusita Descartes-Pelius spoke on the spike in deadly gun violence.
On Friday, she pleaded with the public to ”stand up and report” crime, asserting that there was a need to dispel the notion that crime reduction was solely the responsibility of the police.
However, several people commenting on social media declared that the commissioner must address trust issues and eliminate corrupt officers to win the nation’s confidence.
Tick Tock
Bunch of jack asses wouldn’t stop that nonesense…… Can’t understand the shooting lasted for so long and the police never showed up .
we all know:
– police/ intelligence have an idea of who the criminals are
– people in this community know who the criminals are
– people in this community know what exactly went down
– people are afraid to speak out as they dont trust police
Therefore: it makes sense to clean out the police force first, maybe weed the badmen out by lie detector testing.
Well another one bites the dust. Someone will tell me this issue wasn’t created by govt policies and can’t be reduced by govt policies. The mentality of Vfortians was created by govt policy of gvn handouts form 20 years ago. These men grew up not working and just seeing their parents getting handouts and not working. Soooo. To those who wann shield their politicians. Note the PM and DRep did visit Vfort last time of all the killings. They even went to parliament and changed laws to curb the gun violnce. U know Y Because THEY KNOW THEIR POLICIES IS WHAT CAN CURB GUN VIOLENCE. But their policies hv not worked at all. Check out the statistics so the cop out is to blame the ppl, the police etc.
At this rate we’re on track for 100 for the year. The brazenness of these criminals.
LIE DETECTOR TEST
WAY TO GO.
TO ACHIEVE
ERADICATING CURRUPT COPS.
IN FACT
EVERYONE IN HIGH OFFICE SHOULD BE CHECKED .
FROM P.M TO Bed bugs
@Lucian Lowgrade, where were you when this happened, why you didn’t stop it ? Busy counting our tax payer dollars ?
All them man that doing crime in vieux Fort still living at their mothers home , so them women know that their sins have guns in the house but them women more hungry as they does benefit from the crime …
Lucians you all crying you all have alot more crying to do. You all hiding them, easiest thing to do is blame the police and the shooters stay innocent all you sending them in hiding in neighboring islands
A nation that continues to be at war with itself will ultimately bring about its own doom! Yes, Saint Lucia is destroying itself from within! I might sound like a broken record, but the only solution to our sad predicament is for each person to repent of one’s sinful ways –and turn wholeheartedly to live a life that is acceptable before humanity’s Saviour –the Lord Jesus Christ!
I will need FOUR bodyguards too
Either the authorities are doing nothing in the fight against crime or whatever they are doing is not working. Imagine we have 8 homicides in 29 days. This number could have been higher if luck was not on the side of the two brothers who got shot in what appears to a drive by shooting in North Vieux Fort.
This is a message to the Pm of of our country. Mr. Pm between the hours of 10pm and 1 am last night I would have done anything to trade places of abode with you. NEVER in my 70 odd years on earth have I heard so much automatic RANDOM gunfire. Mr. PM my home – refrigerator, stove, cupboard is RIDDLED with bullet holes. My grandson and I hid underneath a bed and slept on the floor last night. SIR, if this is allowed to continue with such reckless abandon, then what’s the point of living in St. Lucia??? Where was the police? What are we waiting for this random violence to spread to tourist areas like Coconut Bay? Then are we likely to REACT? Should you not have a rapid response team atleast stationed in hotspots like VF and Dennery? We cannot live like this. Why don’t we just allow the SSU along with the RSS to just cordon off known hotspots like Bruceville, Westhall group, the Mangue and SEARCH every house and everyone who enters and exits these communities? We all know who the criminals are – YES WE DO. Just freaking UNBEARABLE!!!!!
@Westhall Resident, exactly “RAPID RESPONSE TEAMS NEAR HOTSPOTS” communicating with each other and HQ. Use cameras to cover the other areas.
@ TRUTH BE TOLD: yours is one of the best comments I’ve read in a long time.
What will it take for these people to come to their senses and stop doing evil?
Wasn’t that the reason Churches were established to teach love & do the good?
A Godless generation has always been a dangerous generation with evil intent.
Why allow the Church of Jesus Christ to fail and give up to the power of evil?
The people do have power, power to change, power to elect a God fearing leader.
May the Dead rest in God’s peace & the escapee turn to Christ & thank God.
The darkness will remain before the light but who will remain to see the glory?
Bring back restore confidence. Eliminate all those useless bum off the streets.
The St Lucian police needs to be reorganized for example you need to be like Antigua and Barbuda police with a gangs unit ,and rapid response SWAT unit a K-9 unit and Military coastguard unit to stop the drugs and guns getting in .St lucia needs to spend more on security and stop the penny pinching.
Not going to write a whole lot of crap…… (1) for the rabble rousers they don’t care what’s going on behind zinc fence as far as they are concerned just as long it’s happening over there and it stays “over there” who cares. (2) Do a little Monday morning errands pass thru to get the word on the street something police and reporters don’t do from my observations what do I see plenty on the verandas and outside in corners barrels the famous blue and brown ones need I say more. (3) Check the barber shop to chime in on the daily round Robbin …… gangs stemming from last year vendetta and they are not VF based only. (4) What did I say when The RSS leave last year they might have to come back. Automatic gun fire, sawed off shot guns, 9mm semiautomatic barking like dogs, oh yeah all St Lucian made.
what you expect when you have cops going to clear barrels with illegal guns from customs for the bad men . and for their boyfriends also. yes some of the women cops are friendly to the bad men and drug dealers. oh sorry I speel the bean yea right like you all don’t know that. st Lucia is a small place every body knows every body. so the corruption is from the top down. crush the head and you stand a chance of killing the body.
So much corrupt police in the force. They all on the playlist.
@vision, I have been saying the same things as you mention long time ago. In the force they are extremely dutty police men/women. But hear that, they have politicians and lawyers we are in bed with these criminal. Serious private undercover investigation needs to be conducted but you cannot trust no politicians in St. Lucia because your name will be on the hitman list. It takes external source to do deep secret investigation and put sanction on the Government of the day to prove the facts otherwise.
If the government enact a minimum wage of 4 dollars an hour . I am pretty sure the
Young people will be motivated to go and work in the private sector instead of joining guns but then again the government is playing games to enact a minimum wage . I hope that the private sector workers vote them out in 26
My questions is what was the police response to over 15 to twenty minutes of this situation. I believe there a need to investigate the police for slow response time I’m disappointed in the police action.
To many cowards in the police force get another profession.
No need to call on the ministry for insecurity, no need to ruined your health such as anxiety, high blood pressure, depression sociophobic etc on our foolice force. Don’t drag our numbskull PM in this. These department will become alive, roll out all their Amory, tactics etc. when an American Tourist get caught in a gun shooting incident. You will be surprised how alert the entire Island will become. It is just crazy.
I will say it again…
The Politicians, the Police and Customs do not care! They are the ones benefitting from this upsurge in criminal activity. They will not do anything to change the current and worsening situation.
@Kaden good question! I thought the PM bought endless new vehicles for them. What’s the excuse now?
Pass through Vieux Fort on an afternoon after school and listen to the primary and secondary students talking about the crime situation in Vieux Fort. They can tell you where the guns are, who has them, who is next on the list, when the next round will take place, who is hiding, who is looking for who. If this is common knowledge to these kids and their parents as well as the community, tell me why it is not known to the police. Yet some police like those with bowel MOTION can give gangs information about every raid the police will conduct.