Marigot: --- The gendarmes are busy investigating the shooting of 18-year old Franck Petion better known as Vebby who was brutally murdered early Saturday morning in the vicinity of the sorting station of La Poste (Centre de Courrier) at Rue Francois Hunt in Concordia.
According to bystanders, the young man was shot and pushed in the nearby bushes next to the La Poste but somehow a doctor that was passing through the main road saw him and summoned the ambulance and gendarmes, the victim was rushed to the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital but later succumbed to his wounds. It is not clear if the victim was shot more than once and where exactly he was shot.
Relatives of the young man said a woman saw the victim who was still alive and asked her for some water but the woman did not stop to render any assistance probably out of fear. His mother Vinette Petion told SMN News on Saturday evening that her son was in his bed about 8:30 am when his cellular phone rang. The bereaved woman said that she asked her son who had called him that early since he also had the flu. Mrs. Petion said her son told her it was a friend that called him and that he was going out for few minutes. The mother further explained that she looked at her son as he took his scooter and drove off as if he was going towards Bellevue.
The mother of five said about fifteen minutes later a young man came to home at number 19 St. James and told her that her son Franck was dead. Mrs. Petion said the youth also told her to go the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital to see what had happened to Franck. She said she immediately got dressed and rushed to the hospital and saw when the ambulance arrived with her son but he was already dead.
According to the mother and other bystanders, several young men all on scooters rushed to the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital hoping that their friend was alive. Most of them SMN News learnt was wearing bandanas on their heads. One bystander said the brigade was called to the hospital to maintain law and order.
Asked if Franck was attending school or if he was working, the woman said her son was no longer in school and he was not working. However, he was attending a stage somewhere in Galisbay.
Sources in the St. James neighborhood said the deceased young man was part of a gang, and that he was involved in public mischief however, efforts made to contact Prosecutor Jacques Louvier on Saturday evening to confirm the allegations proved futile.
SMN News further learnt that Franck Petion was condemned some years ago for a sexual crime when he was a minor and he was sentenced to a juvenile correctional home in Guadeloupe.
One neighbor said Franck Petion whose parents are Haitians was born on St. Martin but he was in the wrong company. Sometime last year the gendarmes arrested him and they searched his mother's house for stolen items. The neighbor further explained that some months ago, one of Franck's good friend's got killed in St. James and the killers had allegedly warned they were going to come back for Franck.
The woman who spoke on the condition of anonymity pointed out several youths in the area where the now dead man had lived as being part of the same gang. "Look at them they all have the head bands and scooters and none of them are working or going to school, all they do is steal and make other people's life miserable." The woman said. Another neighbor said while Franck was a known drug user and had his problems he was also very mannerly when he is around older people.
