The families of those who were killed during the 2009-2011 alleged police shootings are organizing a protest against the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) and the Government of Saint Lucia.
The families said they plan to press the authorities to bring a speedy closure to the issue and will be seeking compensation.
Charyl Clarke whose brother, Arthur Guy “Afoo” Clarke, was gunned down in La Pansee on January 27, 2011, said she wants justice to be served in the matter.
She claimed that a police weapon which was used in another fatal police killing, was also used in her brother’s shooting.
Clarke told the local media that those police who are under suspicion following the investigation, should be suspended.
The woman expressed dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony’s speech on the report.
The main findings into the 2009-2011 extra-judicial killings, confirms that the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) worked from a “black list or death list” of persons deemed criminals and officers staged all shooting-death sites to legitimise their actions.
The report also states that not only normal officers were involved in the operations, but members of the “high command of the police force” may have been involved in “covering up these matters”.
More alarmingly, the investigators report said that all the shootings reviewed were fake encounters staged by the police to legitimise their actions.
The alleged extra-judicial killings by police officers were carried during “Operation Restore Confidence” – an initiative then Prime Minister Stephenson King announced on May 30, 2010 in an address to the nation.
The police operation was in response to an unprecedented wave of homicides and violent crimes between 2008 and 2010, particularly in the northern half of the island.
Between 2010 and 2011, 12 persons were killed during encounters with officers of the RSLPF.