Violence sends football out of WB

Premier League football matches have been moved out of West Bay because of the recent violence in that district.

The Cayman Islands Football Association took the unusual step to move the games away from the crime-hit area in the interests of safety.

The decision was made after parents and family members expressed their concerns about the possible dangers.

As a result, the opening pair of games in Cayman’s top flight took place in Bodden Town on Sunday and the upcoming contests this Sunday, 25 September, are slated to be played in Bodden Town and George Town.

Association Secretary Bruce Blake says the decision was taken in the interests of both spectators and the players. The association does provide security at senior league matches and will continue to do so.

“Based on what had transpired in West Bay over the course of the week, on Friday morning, I made the decision to move the Cayman Premier League games that were scheduled to be played on Sunday at the Ed Bush field in West Bay to the G. Haig Bodden field in Bodden Town,” Mr. Blake said. “My decision was made as a precautionary measure – in the interest of the safety of the players and the spectators and to ease the concerns of the parents and family members of the players and the concerns of the spectators.”

Two young men were gunned down in Grand Cayman last week in what Royal Cayman Islands Police Service officials say is a long-running gang-style dispute between certain residents of two West Bay neighbourhoods. The shooting deaths of Andrew Anthony Baptist, 24, last Thursday and Robert Macford Bush, 28, last Tuesday may have been directly linked to each other. Police indicated Mr. Baptist’s name came up during investigations into Mr. Bush’s killing.

On Saturday night, a third victim – Preston Rivers – was shot to death in the vicinity of Thatch Palm Villas in West Bay. However, police did not immediately link Mr. Rivers’ killing with what happened to the other two men. The Thatch Palm Villas shooting is the second such incident in less than a month in the parking lot of the complex. The teenager hit in the previous incident survived his injuries. He was not the same individual who was killed on Saturday night.

The violence comes a little more than a year after the last round of gang-related killings hit West Bay in 2010, leaving five males – including an innocent 4-year-old boy – dead.

The football association’s premier league intends to resume play in West Bay on Sunday, 2 October. It is not clear what added security will be in place for those matches. Mr. Blake did not discuss what security measures could be seen if there is more violence in the district leading up to next month’s games.

“The football association does provide security for its senior league matches and will continue to do so.”

It should also be noted that this weekend’s matches come after the latest shooting in George Town on Monday night. Jason Christian, 18, became the fourth fatal shooting victim in recent days. A second victim, 22-year-old Keith Montique, was also shot on Crewe Road and was airlifted to a hospital in Miami. Police said Monday’s shooting may be related to the three killings in West Bay, but said it was too early to say definitively if that was the case.