***MEDIA RELEASE***

July 05th, 2024.

The Serious Crimes Unit of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force has launched an investigation into the tragic shooting death of a male resident in Five Cays this evening.

Preliminary reports indicate that the incident occurred shortly after 7:00 PM.

The 38-year-old victim was at his home located along Five Cays Road when a lone gunman approached and shot him.

RT&CIPF officers and emergency services were promptly dispatched to the scene, and the victim was rushed to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre for treatment.

The victim succumbed to his injuries shortly after 8:00 PM. The identity of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased during this difficult time.

Residents of Five Cays and surrounding areas are urged to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities or information about the incident to the RT&CIPF.

Anyone with information about the shooting is encouraged to contact the closest police station, 911, the Serious Crime Unit at 231-1842, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477 to provide any information anonymously.

Additionally, individuals are encouraged to download the Crime Stoppers P3 app to share information.

Danae Dennie

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, July 5, 2024 – “There are 14 mapped criminal gangs in TCI” said TCI  Superintendent Dean Holden, Head of the Crime, Safeguarding and Public Protection Unit.

In a press conference on June 24, 2024, the RTCIPF shared information on traffic arrests, migration mitigation issues as well as their plans to stop crime, after the four deadly killings that took place within 24 hours of each other and the two traffic deaths.

Superintendent Holden shared that the 14 mapped organised gangs are only the ones that they know of but there is possibility for there to be more.

“..that’s as far as we know so, unfortunately I’ve known that we probably have more organised crime groups operating. We need to really humble around the extent of our intelligence… we need people to support us around that”.

When asked about the ages of these gang members, Superintendent Holden said “The profiles for our gang members are usually males between the ages of 18 and 26. Now, that’s not to say that there are not people outside those ages.”

Holden says these gangs are commonly located in Dock Yard, Blue Hills and Five Cays.

According to Holden some of the murders that happened last year were undoubtedly a dispute between gang members from the Dock Yard area and Five Cays. One of these gangs has now been disbanded from the Five Cays area and the other gangs’ members have been remanded for conspiratorial offences that are fire-arm related.

When asked about how firearms are getting into the country, Holden said “when we have an illegal migrant vessel coming from Haiti it is not only carrying individuals… but it’s probably also carrying criminals and probably contraband as well as firearms, in particular ammunition”.

The RTCIPF has set a National Intelligence requirement for all partner agencies to provide information surrounding these crimes

When speaking on the effectiveness of the Gun amnesty, Holden says personally “anybody who gives up their gun usually gives it up because they know it’s not involved in criminality. If it is involved in criminality, my concern then is , if we are saying to people you can give up that gun without any sort of police investigation. If that firearm is linked ballistically to murders or other serious crime, where do we stand? So I have a personal concern of  its effectiveness.”

“The vast majority of the illegal firearms entering the Caribbean space seems to be disproportionately coming from the US” said Commissioner of Police Edvin Martin

“A lot of the weapons that are arriving in the Caribbean region are actually being perpetuated by individuals who are from the respective domestic states and sending them out as well…… there are persons from our state… that are a part of the apparatus of sending firearms to us and causing the significant evil that it is causing us”.

As it relates to the issue of capacity, Martin said, “ the RTCIPF, is trying to build capacity within the force through training , the development of resources both vehicular, mechanical as well as manpower resources to be able to combat the situations that we are approaching at this time”.

Wilkie Arthur

Eagle Legal News Media

#TurksandCaicos, July 3, 2024 – Pleasant, respectful, helpful, and humble was the way the dark man with dreadlocks that we saw lying on the ground, in the depths of Snake Hill was described by many Residents of Back Road, Blue Hills and Dock Yard.

The body of Haitian Ras or lil Haiti was discovered along a secluded bush road that leads into the troubled community of Dock Yard in Kew Town.  His body lay twisted, and not far away, another male, this one a more bright skinned, clad only in his boxer shorts.

The second man has less flattering comments made about him.

Happy photos of Haitian Ras were shared with Eagle Legal.

The discovery on the morning of Friday June 28 marked the fifth and sixth murders for Providenciales in as little as a week; the 20^th and 21^st killings for the country this year.

Eagle Legal conducted its own investigation and inquiries as to the identity of the two individuals, having visited the scene early Friday morning, arriving shortly after police got there.

We were unable to ascertain any legitimate identification and status of either.

Both the police vehicles and this news network Eagle Legal’s vehicle was lost and had to turn around twice and enter another way in order to find the crime location of the bodies. Without the assistance or had we not followed the police speeding vehicles with flashing lights and sirens heading into the depth of the bushes, we would have never found where the deceased bodies lay motionless.

Both men were said to be residents on Back Road in Blue Hills but frequent the Dock Yard area.