FRENCH QUARTER:---- Sometimes it takes an angry crowd of people who are willing to take the law in their own hands before a bit of justice can be served. Yesterday we reported residents of French Quarter has had enough and they began what is called vigilante justice against one of the three suspects who is suspected for the armed robberies that are committed in French Quarter.
The residents caught Romario Leighton a 17 year old Jamaican national who have been terrorizing the community over the past year by breaking and entering into their homes. Leighton received a severe beating and he was transported to the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital. Shortly after he was released to the custody of the gendarmes who later asked the Director of SMN News to identify the young man but because of the beating and his swollen face and the fact he was masked when he and three other gun men stormed our home SMN News director simply could not recognize the culprit. The gendarmes said since they did not have sufficient evidence to hold the 17-year old they released him.
However, yesterday afternoon about 4pm two gendarmes showed up at the home of SMN News and brought back an amount of the stolen items, which includes many important documents. Even though the documents is very valuable to us we would have liked for the gendarmes to find some of our electronic items that were stolen. So far the bandits still has most of our bank medical cards.
The gendarmes explained that even though they are military men they need time to work and has promised to bring Leighton to justice since he is known as the neighborhood vagabond. They asked the population to be patient because if they scare away Leighton then he would move back to Jamaica and escape justice within the French system.
However, residents of French Quarter said they don't have a problem with Leighton going back to his homeland but he would leave here a complete handicap. "We need the gendarmes to know that we will get justice one way or the other because this young man has terrorized the community far to often and nothing is done to him, they know Leighton is the village nuisance and he should have been kept behind bars. SMN News also understands that the residents caught another culprit and gave him a sound beating yesterday, but that could not be ascertained.
We are grateful that the gendarmes managed to recover some of the stolen items such as passports, but the truth is we already paid for the processing of new documents.
While we applaud their efforts we are urging the gendarmes to make sure Leighton is prosecuted for the crimes he committed on the French side of the island, because the next time Leighton is caught in French Quarter the outcome would not be the same as Saturday.
The residents said they will not give up and they would make sure Leighton and his partners in crime get what they needed. They said that this is the only way peace would return to the community.