Marigot:--- Friends and supporters of the First Deco employee Pascal Delalosa (44) who was murdered last Sunday night marched through the streets of Marigot on Saturday morning as they pay homage to their friend and colleague. Almost 400 hundred persons dressed in white for the "white march" in honour of Delalosa, a man they described as peaceful and friendly began around 9:30 from First Deco. They went along Rue Lowdown, past Marina Royale apartments where Pascal lived and continued through Marigot and out to the cemetery before returning along the waterfront to Hotel de la Collectivite.
Many persons dropped money into a collection box carried at the head of the march to raise funds to repatriate Delalosa's body back to France where he will be laid to rest. Marchers, many of whom carried photos of Pascal, stopped at Hotel de La Collectivite demanding to speak to President Gumbs who was involved with a wedding ceremony at the time. President Gumbs eventually came out to speak to the crowd but was met by an angry reaction as several emotional individuals demanded to know what was being done about the crime situation. When Gumbs emerged from the Collectivity he told the mourners that nothing he said could bring back Pascal, neither would it relieve their pain from the lost of their friend. The President said the COM is doing a lot to reduce crime but the State was also responsible. However, that did not sit well with one of the marchers who confronted President Gumbs with a photo of the late Pascal telling him that this is the third person in three years to be killed brutally.
The woman said you are in office three years now and this is the third time we are here marching in white when someone lost their life due to violence and crime. The first a white march was organized when Victor Vanier lost his life in fight on the Dutch side of the island, the second Nejumbia Fleming and her baby daughter were murdered in their home in St. James, and the third was to honor Pascal Delalosa.
Many felt that authorities on the French side of the island are responsible for the slaying of Pascal as he had alerted authorities about his fears of losing his life to the gangsters that loiter around the Marina Royale.
