Less than 24 hours after Saint Lucia Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre cautioned against creating an environment of fear in St Lucia as a result of the rising crime situation, police are investigating the murder of a 38-year-old nurse.
Police said that Keziah Wilson, a mother of an 11-year-old child, was found in her car few yards from her home with a bullet wound to the head in Goodlands on the outskirts of the capital.
The police have appealed for information regarding the 63rd murder so far this year with residents of the area indicating that Wilson may have been heading home from work when she was killed.
On Monday, Prime Minister Pierre told reporters “an environment of fear doesn’t help anybody.
“We can’t politicise it or even be happy when there is a crime and say: ‘Crime still happening and you all in government’,” he said, warning that an environment of fear could stop economic activity and growth.
Pierre urged young people to stay away from a life of crime reminding them that having a firearm could land them in jail for 25 years, regardless of whether they use the weapon.
“I feel bad something like that happened to her,” one resident said.
Another resident, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, recalled being in the comfort of his home when he heard the sound of gunfire early morning.
“I heard the screaming, and when I came outside, I saw him, and when I asked him what happened, he said his fiancé got shot… For somebody to be on her way to her family and that happening to her, that’s crazy.”
“Unfortunately, things like this happen in our country,” one resident said, reflecting on the level of crime on the island.
Meanwhile, Minister for Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs Moses Jn Baptiste has described it as ‘sad’ as he sympathized with the family and the entire medical fraternity.
Wilson was a nurse attached to the Owen King EU Hospital, particularly in the Nursery.
