Saturday’s double homicide in Marchand has prompted calls from distraught family members of the deceased for an end to the deadly gun violence surge in Saint Lucia.
Police identified the deceased as Black Mallet residents Evitus Lynch Junior alias ‘Red Boy’ and twenty-year-old Thaddeus Denis alias ‘Coco Boy’.
They sustained fatal gunshot injuries on Marchand Road.
The mother of Thaddeus Denis called for an end to the violence plaguing the country.
“All I want to say to the young guys out there, ‘You all need to stop. Put down the guns. We need to pray’,” Lisa Charles told reporters.
“It needs to stop – the gangs, being in bad company, it needs to stop,” Charles declared.
She explained that parents speak to their children, but bad companions influence the youngsters.
Nevertheless, Charles said parents must continue admonishing their children.
She recalled losing another son three years ago, explaining that it was hard to bear a child and then have to bury him.
“I am empty inside. I am broken,” the mother told reporters, adding that she had not eaten since the fatal shooting on Saturday and was praying to God for the strength to cope.
Meanwhile, the father of Evitus Lynch Junior recalled that with the young man’s death, he had now lost two sons and his child-mother to gun violence.
The son and child-mother were among three individuals killed in a 2021 drive-by shooting in Marchand.
Junior, the second son who succumbed on Saturday, died without witnessing the birth of his child.
“I miss my child-father and he not even there to see his unborn child,” Junior’s girlfriend lamented.
She echoed calls for the violence to stop, declaring that Junior was not a bad individual.
“He have his ways, but he was a good man,” the girlfriend recalled, adding that the deceased cared for his children.
“He wasn’t a violent person,” she stated.
Photo: (L to R) Evitus Lynch Junior and Thaddeus Denis
The young people should throw away the guns and get a job to do . There are so many vacancies, in construction, the hotels, manufacturing plants , but they prefer to stay on the block smoke crack cocaine , weed and drink bounty rum . These are the people who always say nothing not running
This is really heart breaking for parents to be burying their children like that some parts of the world people are dying because of organ failure, and these young and vibrant men are wasting their life’s away what a mess, God put a hand please
Well I’ll tell my love I feel your pain but remember he was good to you all in his circle.
Ppl don’t get shot for no reason.
For every action there is an equal reaction………and the killing continues.
So sad. U know the life these guys r living.
I don’t know what anyone expect the end to be but this.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Your authorities need to get a grip, your precious island relies heavily on income from tourism – people are watching and making choices to go elsewhere. You check blue barrels when they arrive but instead of creaming yourselves making a few dollars from ex pats bringing their own food and supplies, (they don’t care about guns they just want the decent toiletries and basics that just don’t exist on your island) you should be looking closer to home…… but you don’t, I wonder why not?