Police round up base boys

A number of young men from the Dog Pound area of Central American Boulevard were taken into custody by police on Wednesday evening following the burial of their close friend Alden Quilter. Quilter, you will recall, was killed by a single gunshot to his chest last week. According to Elwein Pollard, he and his friends had just returned from the cemetery and were hanging out when they were rounded up by police.

Elwein Pollard

“Well, right after we went to our homeboy funeral yesterday and right after the funeral, I don’t know what happened. They say we mi di smoke through the street, but nobody was smoking no weed and they come right back there and carry everybody. Two, three trooper come and the truck full and start to harass everybody. Then late last night about minutes to ten, me and some of my friends coming home and they attack us again and they took us in. Now they are charging my homeboys for loitering and gang related over this T-shirt right here. I no see nothing wrong with this T-shirt. Everybody got T-shirt; we sprayed these ourselves.”

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Alvan Rowland, the young men were not taken in because of the clothes they were wearing, but because police investigation indicated that the group was planning some sort of retaliation for the death of Quilter, including to disrupt the church service. As a result Rowland says, the police had stepped up security, especially along the route of the funeral procession. In total, twenty young men were taken into custody for disorderly behavior. They are expected to appear in Magistrate’s Court on Friday morning.