12/28/2007 11:02:00 AM 'Getting away with murder' Residents, reeling from triple shooting, say the silence of witnesses allows killers to roam with impunity
Shot Dead: Aquil Richardson.
How the holiday violence unfolded
Christmas Day
12.20am
Police are called out to a disturbance at Camp Hill Road, Southampton. They find a man who has been shot in the shoulder. The 24-year-old Pembroke man - who has not yet been named - is taken to hospital, where he remains in a serious but stable condition.
From 1am
A 25-strong team of police officers and forensic experts begin a fingertip search of the Camp Hill area for discarded weapons and other clues.
Boxing Day
9am
The Bermuda Police Service (BPS) says that the Christmas Day violence was most likely gang-related.
Midday
Amid fears of revenge attacks, officers with sniffer dogs establish a large presence at Kindley Field Road, St. George's, to search people on the way to a Boxing Day soccer match. At least one man is arrested for carrying a weapon and several are arrested for drugs offences.
5pm
The BPS issues a plea for "calm and restraint" amid growing unease that more gang-related violence may follow. Bishop of Bermuda Ewen Ratteray and David Burch, Cabinet spokesman for police, also appeal for calm.
9pm
Police are again called to the Camp Hill area, where they find two more shooting victims. A 25-year-old Warwick man - who has not yet been named - had been shot in the lower part of his body. He is taken to hospital, where he remains in a non-life-threatening condition. The other victim - a 30-year-old Southampton man - is pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Thursday, December 27
From 9am
Forensic experts continue their examination of objects recovered from the scene of the shootings.
Midday
To further deter revenge attacks, police set up extra patrols in "hotspots" where gang violence has erupted in the past.
4.30pm
The BPS officially release the name of the man killed in the Boxing Day shooting: Aquil Richardson, 30, from Southampton, who has previously faced charges relating to violence and drugs.
A Camp Hill Road resident has told how he rushed a bleeding man shot outside his house to hospital while another, Aquil Richardson, lay dead, shot in the head, in his front yard.
The man, who asked not to be identified, was lying on his bed at around 9pm on Boxing Day when he heard five gunshots go off outside his window in the Southampton neighbourhood.
He told us: "I got up and tried to go outside but people were trying to run into my house. I saw one guy had been shot in the leg so I took him to hospital.
"There was a lot of blood. My son came with me and he tried to keep talking to him to keep him alive. We saved his life."
The injured man, reported to be a 25-year-old from Warwick, is recovering in hospital.
The double shooting on Boxing Day followed a shooting at around 12.20am on Christmas Day, also on Camp Hill. That victim, a 24 year-old man from Pembroke, is still in hospital. The shootings all happened within a 20-yard radius.
Witnesses say two men wearing masks on a motorbike committed the Boxing Day shootings.
Residents yesterday were reluctant to talk about Mr. Richardson, a 30-year-old from Southampton and the father of at least three children.
However, we were told by multiple sources that he was well known to the police. He was due to face firearm charges in Supreme Court early next year. In 2005 he was charged with assault and possessing a baseball bat as an offensive weapon, which he denied.
The triple shooting comes less than two months after an anti-violence march through Hamilton organized by Marsha Jones, the mother of Shaundae Jones, shot four years ago in Dockyard.
She told us yesterday that she knew Mr. Richardson and his mother and was stunned by the shootings. Shaundae was actually in Mr. Richardson's car when he was shot.
Mrs. Jones told us: "I know his momma quite well. I've spoken to her and she's in shock. She's just trying to keep busy. We're all in a state of shock. Another child. When will these black children stop killing each other?"
Mrs. Jones, who was battling through another Christmas without her own son and thinking about what would have been his 25th birthday on January 16, said she didn't know too much about Mr. Richardson's personal life but said: "He always treated me with the greatest respect. He always told me if I needed anything to give him a call.
"It makes no sense. They don't even realize they are killing each other.
"The child has lost his life and the family has got to go through the torture of a funeral."
Mrs. Jones said: "I will try and be the best friend I can be to her [Mrs. Richardson]. She has been very good to me through my suffering."
There was a large police presence at the crime scene opposite the Limelight Barbershop yesterday. At one point a fire service crew showed up to flush away the remaining blood.
The man who lives at the house and who rushed one of the victims to hospital, then walked over and poured bleach over the area.
He and his wife were adamant that there would be more shootings unless people started telling the police what they know. Her nephew was Tekle Mallory, another young Bermudian who was murdered. Two men were arrested for his death but the case fell apart in court.
'It's going to continue'
She told us: "We're not really safe anywhere. People know they can get away with murder here. My nephew was murdered six years ago and it's going to continue."
Her husband added: "We've got to stop this senseless violence. I'm tired of all this crime; people have got to start speaking up. Contact the police and tell them what you know."
The man insisted that Bermuda has become too soft on crime and that it needs to "bring the death penalty back" otherwise it's going to be "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
He said: "Why should we pay for them to be alive up at Westgate when someone is dead?"
Another resident, shaking her head, told us: "It's just not going to stop. What a way for the year to end just like this. It's getting so that you can't even sit outside your own house anymore and have a conversation.
"We don't really know how to feel right now. We are not really safe anywhere."
Lawyer Charles Richardson, who represented Aquil Richardson, but is no relation, told us increasing prison sentences isn't going to change anyone's behaviour. He says it's the community's responsibility as a whole to teach against violence.
He told us: "At the end of the day, the guy may not have had the most sterling behavioural record, but he was a human being.
"He was somebody's father and somebody's son and somebody has decided within 30 seconds to completely end his life over something trivial."
Posted: Thursday, January 03, 2008
Comment by:
Ian Primrose
It's hard to believe that this sort of senseless violence is happening in a small community like Bermuda. People need to speak up and inform the Police when the are aware of criminality in their neighbourhood.
Posted: Saturday, December 29, 2007
Comment by:
John Smith
Welcome to Bermuda.
Posted: Saturday, December 29, 2007
Comment by:
Black Pearl
Bermuda, Bermuda, Bermuda. Like Marvin Gaye sang "WHAT'S GOING ON."
One DAY I was talking to a friend who sold marijauna in BDA and he didn't even have a job other then selling pot. He was living pretty large, nice care and all. I asked him aren't you afraid that you will go to prison? He said "I don't care, prison is fine its pretty good up there! And all my friends are up there anyway." I was like dammmmm now that is pure ridiculous when people aren't afraid to go to prison.
Bermuda better do something and do it fast. There is a lot of angry people down there. How many lives have to be taken, before someone solves the problem or gets to the root.
I'm praying for my beautiful island, that there is peace soon amongst my black brothers and sisters, and that we learn to love one another and find peace and harmony.
Life is so short.
Posted: Friday, December 28, 2007
Comment by:
glenda copeland
My prayers go out to the families of this terrible crime. Bermuda has so much to offer and too much to lose. Speak up and stand up for your rights..
