TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Beacon Hill Shooting Update/ARREST

Condolences to the family

Holy cow very sad indeed . Condolences to the Family.

Very sorry to hear....prayers for the family

This is so sad. Devastating news. Prayers and condolences for the family.

Sorry to hear this.

An absolutely terrible situation. My heart goes out to the daughter and entire family.

So very sad, condolences and prayers go out to the family.

Link to the article isn't working this morning.

I think the facebook page may have been suspended for some reason.

The page is fine, but the post is gone.

Are there any video security cameras in this area at all that we know of? I so rarely see Police anywhere apart from doing once in a while checks in Marigot but that’s because I mostly stay on the French side.

Not that I am aware of. I am sure there would have been mention of any video by now if it existed.

Sunset beach bars camera points in that direction, along with Maho Market. Plenty of video cameras in that are, we hope they caught the person or persons responsible

I hope so also but wouldn't that have made the news in some fashion if they had?

Do you think the cameras would be accurate enough or positioned in such a manner to pick anything up at that time of night? Maybe the existence of such video is the secret factor they aren’t releasing. Or maybe I’ve been watching too many detective shows?

Did I not read in another post with Daily Herald link that the perp(s) fled in a Kia Picanto? If so, there are not likely more than a few hundred of them on the island. The police, Dutch and French, should be able to start from there. I would assume that there are relevant vehicle registration records to work from. I would hope that this would be very high priority investigation, perhaps even some Canadian law enforcement would assist in forensic matters.

I have been thinking the same thing. It is a rather small island, not New York city.

That is a great question ruralcarrier. In my job there are hundreds of reasons it does not show up in the local media or press. For example: 1) tourist on tourist crime
2) prominent local son or of the equivalent
3) the video does not play out the original accounts of the crime
4) could be an estranged family event, regardless what has been posted on Facebook

All in all, in my experience, most eyewitness accounts are at best 15% to 30% correct. Now this is from me saying from 30+ years of tens of thousand of interviews, and a ton of them on the box. We use to sit back at the end of the day, or and investigation (our crew), and laugh at how wrong the eyewitness accounts were or the media got it SO wrong.

Like I said earlier, hundreds of reasons it’s not come out. I just sat back and let it play out, and let the powers to be let them do their due diligence. But I can a sure you, Their is plenty of video of this event, sad as it may be.

My two cents, do beat me up.

Stolen car I'm sure.

Condolences to the family. This is such a horrible incident and will certainly affect tourism. People will avoid places where robbery and murder are happening to tourists. It is all over the news here in Canada and when that happens the government has travel advisories for that country. This is very concerning!

News in Canada of course would cover the murder of a Canadian in SXM but oddly not much in The USA on this horrible incident. The DR has caught the spotlight with six tourists dying from drinking from hotel resort mini bars and former Red Sox player was shot in the back in the DR...

SXM police today confirmed the arrest of three individuals in a press release, as follows:

"The Police Department (KPSM) is proud to announce that detectives investigating the ongoing armed robbery case involving a Canadian male tourist and his daughter that took place on June 5th, 2019 just after 11.00 p.m. on Beacon Hill road have arrested three suspects involved in this case. During this robbery, the victim identified as Sylvain Valade in his efforts to protect his daughter from any harm was shot and unfortunately died later of the wounds he sustained at a hospital in the United States. The daughter of the victim was not physically injured but was emotionally traumatized by the incident. Directly after committing this heinous act the robbers fled the scene in a small white vehicle towards the French side of the island and have been in hiding. This incident shocked the entire community of Sint Maarten including visitors to the island and was covered by international media.
The team of the KPSM Special Unit Robbery immediately initiated an investigation and gave this case highest priority in order to locate and apprehend the culprits responsible for this terrible act and bring them to justice. The SUR-team worked tirelessly with persistence and in close cooperation during many long hours with the local Prosecution Service and the French Gendarmes to solve this case which started just over two months ago. Even though Sint Maarten is a very small island separated into two different countries with open borders the judicial process which then becomes a challenge has to be respected and followed. This judicial process, however, did not discourage the SUR-team or the other judicial entities assisting in this investigation. Today we are very happy to say that the three suspects are behind bars and that they are cooperating with the investigation. The suspects at this time will remain in custody for questioning and further investigation. The community of Sint Maarten and visitors to the island should feel safer that these culprits are off the streets. Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) has put all resources into this investigation and will do everything necessary and in its power to bring closure to this case for the family and friends of the Sylvain Valade."

Good news, although nothing could bring back Mr. Valade. Hopefully his family can have at least this solace.

Good Job by the police department.
This really was an awful incident.
Hopefully his daughter and rest of family find some peace.

Love .. it's the only thing worth living for, dying for, and the only thing that lasts forever.

Sounds like a first class investigation and with the inter-agency cooperation there was a successful conclusion. Now hopefully the judiciary does it's job and punishes these culprits appropriately. I personally don't believe that closure exists and as Carol said this will not bring Mr. Valade back to life but hopefully it generates some confidence in the law enforcement community of SXM, both sides. Good job and kudos to the efforts of those law enforcement officers.

I like the cooperation between the 2 countries. Of course, I'll feel much better if and when there's a conviction and they're off the streets permanently. But they are cooperating.

One of the suspects tried to off himself in the jail. Here's the link:
https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/89906-suspect-in-amazoniet-case-tried-to-kill-himself

Amazoniet?

No clue. Google gives me the Dutch name for Amazonite. That's all that I've got, other than speculation that it might be the codename of the operation to find the killer.

Most or all SXM police investigations have code names, for some reason.