By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

COMMISSIONER Paul Rolle yesterday revealed that several police units were searching for the suspect who had murdered a mother and daughter hours before they were killed.

Thirty-year-old Alicia Sawyer and her eight-year-old child Ednique Wallace were found dead in their Nassau Village home on Monday morning.

It has been circulated on social media, but not by police, that the mother made a complaint to police regarding the suspect.

Asked about this and what protection police offer when such complaints are made, Commissioner Rolle didn’t confirm or deny directly if Ms Sawyer had made a complaint before her death.

He said: “The short of it is there are certain provisions in law that prevent where they’re living in the same home… Again, how much then do... the police then to do in those kinds of thing? You talk about protection. The protection is to try and catch the culprit and on that night when the incident happened we had several units all over the city trying to find this culprit and in the midst of that he was able to return to this place... well I assume... which we suspect that he returned and then we had what took place. Which is sad.

“All night they were out in search for him and until we found him. At the time when we found him, unfortunately this woman was found dead. But unlike when you have two persons in the home, they were not living together. When you have two persons in a home, one abuse the other we separate and then we could get those separation and get Social Services involved and get a court order forcing them.”

A man was taken into custody late Monday in connection with the double murder.

At the crime scene, police press liaison officer ASP Audley Peters said the incident appeared to be domestic based on the evidence.

Back in July, the police chief noted a decrease in domestic matters in the country. This is in contrast to Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell telling reporters in June his ministry had received increased reports of domestic abuse and child abuse since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Asked if there would be awareness campaigns on domestic violence, Commissioner Rolle added yesterday the police are going to be doing “media blitz” on the issue. He added, however, this is not only “a police issue”.

“Everybody in this community has a duty to ensure the safety of everybody in this community. As police officers, we are paid simply to pay full time and attention to this. That’s something everybody has an obligation to ensure safety for all in the interest of community, but we lead this and as the leaders, yes, I’m going to be and you’ll see some more of that and trying to encourage our community people to get involved.

“We have issues now there are matters that come into the contact of the police we do referrals. We do referrals, but persons then have to be willing and so you have those community partners and I would hope they would step up and also talk more about it.”