Diego Martin Regional Corporation chair Susan Hong says the Carenage community has been plunged into deep grief and hurt following Friday’s police-involved shooting where three people were killed and two others injured.
Hong said she believes healing will come with much prayers and in due time.
She made the comment as she addressed a Crime Stoppers cottage meeting at the Carenage Fishing Centre last evening.
Hong said everyone has a role to play in ensuring that each community is safe and called for communities to fully support Crime Stoppers as this could contribute to better security for all.
“Crime cannot be continued...we need to work together to bring back our country. We have to be observant. Be our brother’s keeper,” Hong said.
She said the regional corporation will be fostering a long-term partnership through education activities between community and law enforcement agencies.
“If you have information on crime please call Crime Stoppers...you do not have to expose yourselves or family to any danger because of the strict anonymity that exists, she said.
Crime Stoppers executive manager Garland Samuel and his team met Carenage residents during the event.
Speaking with Guardian Media before the event started, Samuel said the meeting’s main objective was to promote Crime Stoppers and its benefits to people who report crimes and criminal activities in the hope of eradicating crime, making necessary arrests and/solving cases.
Asked if it was a deliberate plan to hold a meeting in the area following Friday’s police-involved shooting in which three people were killed, including a teenager girl, and two others injured, Samuel said it was coincidental as the meeting was advertised five weeks ago.
Told of several shooting incidents in the area over the past two months and asked if people had called and given tips, Samuel said because of the anonymity of the organisation he could only say Crime Stoppers has been able to give police information which allowed them to retrieve one illegal firearm per week in the past five weeks.
“We want to remind people about our services. Crime Stoppers offers the ability to report any type of crime through our hotline at 800 TIPS online. Our anonymity is based on two elements which are a person who reports the crime remains anonymous and secondly, the actual crime that was solved also remains anonymous. In that way the identification of tips is protected,” Samuel said.
In celebration of its 20th anniversary this year, Crime Stoppers has increased its monetary reward from $10,000 to up to $20,000 to the end of the year. To date, there have been 600,000 calls to Crime Stoppers which resulted in 1,650 arrests, 20,000 tips and the seizure of over $295 million worth in narcotics.