Marigot: --- Scores of gendarmes raided two homes in the St. James area early Friday morning. According to residents, the gendarmes arrived at the scene soon after 5 am. Jean Claude Bryan said he heard strange sounds outside of his wooden house but thought it was his neighbors who were working, but shortly after the gendarmes pulled open his door, where they found him and his companion naked.
The man said they were told by the gendarmes that it was a routine search. Bryan said the gendarmes searched the entire apartment using dogs. He said at one point he was taken outside as the search was taking place shortly after the gendarmes took him back inside the house and placed him to sit down, as they continue the search. Bryan further explained that when he enquired from the officers what was the purpose of the search he was told that it was a search for narcotics (drugs.) Asked if anything was found and what was taken from his house Bryan said the officers left empty handed.
Bryan said after the gendarmes finished at his home they went across the street where they broke down the front glass door of a house to gain access.
At the scene were a number of gendarmes, in and around the home of Leroy Mussington whose house and yard were being searched. Inside the house, several gendarmes were searching as they converged at the back of the home in boats to make sure no one escaped. Mussington was also arrested and taken away by the officers who spent over four hours at the scene.
The wife of Mussington had to be taken by ambulance to the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital as she collapsed when the officers left her house with her husband. The woman was overheard saying that the gendarmes were beating her husband prior to taking him away.
Another resident of the area Patrick Lake was also very vocal about the search; he condemned the gendarmes saying that they do not have a warrant to conduct such searches. Lake said his house was also searched sometime ago and felt that the gendarmes are targeting locals.
In the meantime, several residents of the area who converge at the scene to witness what was taking place were heard lashing out at the gendarmes. Most of them were saying that the gendarmes are racist and that they are targeting the locals or black people. Some even threatened to get them out of their neighborhoods.
Several other long time residents of St. James and Low Town who spoke to this reporter anonymously praised the gendarmes for the work they are now doing. One elderly resident said that Friday marked two years since Mussington’s former girlfriend was found dead in her house. One woman said crime is escalating and that something has to be done to clean up the area. She went on to say that almost a year ago another family woke up to find two people killed in their house. She was referring to Nejumbia and Ronelia Fleming who was brutally murdered during the early morning hours of October 30. Notwithstanding the slaying of Biko on January 30, 2009 in a house in Low Town.
SMN News has been reliably informed that the gendarmes seized a large quantity of drugs that was destined for St. Martin. The source said at least two shipments were seized and one person has been arrested prior to the raid at the St. James homes on Friday.
Efforts made to contact the local prosecutor Jacques Louvier for a comment proved futile while the Captain and Commandant of the gendarmes Stephanne Brunet and Stephanne Arrouseau could not be reached for a comment.
