A senior police officer is suggesting the number of murders recorded so far this year is no big deal, describing the 26 homicides as “a fairly good figure” and “an alright figure”.
With the country recording just under three murders each month, Crime Prevention Officer with the Royal Barbados Police Force Stephen Griffith has suggested that this is nothing to cower in fear about, especially since other jurisdictions in the region, some smaller than Barbados, have murder rates that are much higher.
“I know that you have people getting shot every weekend and things like that but they’re only down to 26. There are several countries within our own Caribbean environment that have tripled or quadrupled that figure. So, 26 is a fairly good figure. With all due respect to the people who died and their families, 26 is an alright figure,” he told a crime prevention lecture hosted last evening by the District Grand Lodge #1, Barbados at The Lion’s Den on Beckles Road, St Michael.
Griffith was quick to note that lawmen were making significant progress in solving these crimes, pointing to the fact that over the last few days a number of arrests were made in two outstanding matters that were merely weeks old.
In the most recent case, five men were remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison at Dodds today charged with killing 49-year-old British businessman Steven Weare, who was last seen alive in Burger King’s car park at University Drive, Black Rock, St Michael on August 23, and whose body was found in a remote area at Melverton, St George on September 1.
Weare, a car salesman from Kirkham, Lancashire in the north west of England, was reportedly staying at Newcastle Plantation House in St John.
“You would recognize that over the weekend some other guys were charged in [the] murder in Christ Church and probably by the end of the week we will have about five or six other persons, five of whom are in custody in respect of another murder [Weare]. We are making some headway so there is no need to panic. Investigations are slow and determined,” he told the gathering.
Meantime, the senior police officer also revealed that burglary remained the number one crime on the island, although he did not go into detail.