On Wednesday, December 29th, during the last sitting of the House of Assembly for 2021, members took the time to denounce the recent killing of Simon “Earnest” Crawford who was attacked by a gun-wielding man in the wee hours of Monday, December 27th.
Mr. Crawford, a well-known personality in the community, was a jovial, hard-working individual. He, unfortunately, met his death under rather austere circumstances while in his own home during normal sleeping hours.
The Honourable Member for District 3, Mr. Evans McNeil Rogers, had requested that “notes of condolences” be given in the honourable House with regard to the tragic death of Mr. Crawford. Consequently, the Speaker, the Honourable Barbara Webster-Bourne, accommodated the request. She stressed that any expression of sentiments should focus on the plight of gun-related violence in particular.
She noted that the scourge of gun-violence is wreaking too much havoc in communities and on families, and she welcomed the views of anyone who would speak on the issue.
A sombre Premier, Dr. Ellis L. Webster, solemnly recounted: “Madam Speaker, in my Christmas message I mentioned that we must remember those who had lost loved ones due to senseless gun violence. But I could never imagine that, in the early morning hours of December 27th, I would be called to the home of my first cousin — and your first cousin, Madam Speaker, — Mrs. Iantha Crawford, whose husband was shot to death in his bedroom.
“The realisation that this type of violence has entered someone like Ernest’s home [is pathetic]. I often passed Mr. Crawford regularly sitting on his porch, never bothering anyone…
“This is un-Anguillian. I don’t know how we have gotten to this point, but gun-violence is certainly something that needs to end. This scourge affects everyone of us, and we can no longer cast a blind eye to it. We cannot say [of violent youngsters] that ‘they will thin out’ themselves, because it is now coming home to roost.”
The Premier went on to put on record his advocacy for community policing: “I have always been a proponent for community policing,” he stated. “I have spoken to the powers that be about it. And maybe in this day and age, with all the smart phones and cameras, the Royal Anguilla Police Force is hesitant to do their job because they would be put up on social media. But I say that this is the time when the police need to act. There needs to be more border protection to prevent the importation of guns, and there must be a way that the community can report to the police in confidence — without being concerned that if they speak to the police they might become targets.”
“As a community,” Dr. Webster said, “we still have to look out for each other and report when it is necessary.”
While feverishly condemning the attack, the elected Representative for District 6, the Honourable Haydn Hughes, passionately described Mr. Crawford as a 71-year-old man who had never gotten involved in any sort of violence, yet he was gunned down while in the comfort of his own home.
He reflected: “I had occasion to speak to Earnest several times. And even though he was seventy-one, he was fit and strong — a man who loved his family. He had raised his five daughters well…It really hurts me to see how he was taken from us. There is no way that someone could be sleeping in his house, having no ‘beef’ with anyone, sleeping with his wife of over three decades, and have to be awaken ‘by animals’ to face his untimely death.”
Mr. Hughes alluded to a post he found on social media written by one of Mr. Crawford’s daughter, Jacintha. He set out to read that post, having acquired permission from Jacintha, herself: “I never imagined a world where my father did not exist. How would I prepare for this? I figured it would happen some day, with us being mortal beings and all, but not at this time. I do not recognise this world.
“So, take me back to the world where my father boiled a different flavour of bush-tea every night for his wife, his children and his grandchildren, whether they asked for it or not. It’s a world where my father would pour the tea to give me my cup first because he knew I drink mine without sugar. Take me back to the world where my father made a pot of cornmeal porridge for everyone because we favoured Daddy’s porridge; Mommy’s porridge just isn’t the same.
“I want to go back to that world where my father would cook a huge pot of soup and send a message to everyone of his daughters, outside of the home, saying, Come! Daddy cooked soup, so come. In that world, my father would butcher three of his goats for Christmas solely for the purpose of giving something to our neighbours.
“In that world my father treated his dog like his child – a four legged son. It’s a world where he would travel the length of the island to cut bush to feed his goats in the dry season. But this new world is incomplete without my father. It does not resemble what I have known home to be. It is foreign. It is cold and cruel. And I don’t know how to exist in this world.’”
The Honourable Member for District 3, Mr. Evans McNeil Rogers, sought to differentiate between the death of one meeting his or her demise by an accident versus one being killed — as in the case of Ernest. He emphasised that though in both cases those left behind must endure pain, that pain which comes by the hand of a gunman is much more excruciating than the pain of one taken away by a mere accident.
“I think all of us must sit down,” he said, “including the court system, law enforcement, teachers, parents, churches, behavioural experts and social workers to see what solution(s) we can come up with to curtail gun-violence in our small island. If not, when this kind of crime takes place again, we would have to come to this House again and again and say the same things.”
He vowed that he would volunteer to be on any committee that would work towards the curtailing of gun-violence: “Gun-violence is not a part of who we are,” he insisted. “And if there is one committee in this House that I would always be present on, it would be a committee for us to address situations particularly related to gun-violence.”
Other parliamentarians present, including the Honourable Deputy Governor, Mr. Perin Bradley, Mr. Kenneth Hodge, Mr. Kyle Hodge, Mr. Jose Vanterpool, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie and Mr. Merrick Richardson, passionately expressed their sentiments and tendered their condolences to Mr. Crawford’s family and friends.
The management and staff of The Anguillian also join in extending to the family, relatives and friends of Mr. Crawford their condolences on his untimely passing.
