The two men who were on Monday charged with the murder of six young women should face the death penalty.
That’s the firm opinion of Stephen Lashley, Minister of Family, Youth, and Sports.
“I make no apologies as a Minister of Government to use the strongest possible language to articulate my profound disgust at these events which have chilled our hearts and brought tears to the eyes of everyone in our nation,” he stated over the weekend.
“At this time in Barbados, we are mourning the death of six beautiful, young women who were literally cut down in the prime of their lives in a fire in Bridgetown that ought not to have happened,” Lashley said.
Nineteen-year-old Jamar Dwayne Orlando Bynoe of Headley’s Land, Bank Hall, St. Michael and 21-year-old Renaldo Anderson Alleyne of Prescod Bottom, Hindsbury, of the same parish, appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court yesterday to face charges of six counts of murder, along with the charges of aggravated burglary, arson and wounding with intent.
The two men are suspected of firebombing the Campus Trendz clothing store after burglarising the establishment on September 3. The events led to the deaths of Pearl Cornelius 18, Shanna Griffith 18, Nikkita Belgrave 23, Kelly-Ann Welch 24, Tiffany Harding, 23 and Kellishaw Ollivierre, 24.
“It is one of the dullest moments in the history of our country,” he contended.
“We are right as a nation to soundly condemn this act of terrorism. This act should never, ever, ever reoccur in Barbados again.”
According to Lashley, a lawyer by training, “Barbados still has on its statute books the death penalty. Of course we face a number of legal challenges in relation to the death penalty, but I believe that this crime deserves the swiftest and the most final act and penalty.
“I hope that this Government, and indeed all of the social systems in our country, will feel a need to respond to what has been one of the moments in our country that we should never be proud of. What we saw displayed in Bridgetown was an act of terrorism that we have never seen before,” the minister added. (Barbados Advocate)
