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(CNS): The gun used by Luisto Eusebio Hernandez when he tried to kill his girlfriend’s father was never recovered and is one of a number of weapons still in circulation that are being ‘hired out’ and reused over and over again. During his trial, it emerged that this firearm was also used in two robberies in 2021 and to kill former prison officer Harry Elliott last year.
In his sentencing ruling earlier this week, Justice Roger Chapple raised concerns about how quickly after the row between the two men Hernandez had managed to get a gun, return to the family yard and shoot him.
The judge said this was a reflection of Hernadez’ lifestyle, but it also shows that ‘guns for hire’ remain a problem for local law enforcement. This weapon remains in circulation, but because of its unique ballistic fingerprint, police have now connected it to four known serious crimes.
It appears to have first surfaced in an armed robbery by three men at a barber shop in George Town on 23 June 2021, when a shot was discharged. Three days later, it was used during a home invasion in West Bay, where the homeowner was shot but recovered. No one has been charged in either of these cases.
While it may have been used in other crimes after that, the next time police were able to confirm its use was in the murder of Elliot last April in George Town.
A few days later, Hernandez was able to get his hands on the same gun and use it, as the judge said, with “murderous intent”. The make and model of the gun is unknown, but ballistic evidence suggests it is a .38 calibre handgun. While there was no evidence or suggestion that Hernandez was connected to those other crimes, the judge said it appeared that he knew where to go to get the gun and probably took it back afterwards.
This is the second weapon that has been identified through court cases over the last year to be a ‘gun for hire’. When Roger Davard Bush was tried last summer, it emerged that the 9mm (possibly semi-automatic) handgun he used to kill his son, Shaquille Demario Bush, “in a hail of bullets” in November 2019 was also a weapon for hire that has since disappeared.
That gun was used in nine crimes before it was used in the Bush murder, including two unsolved murders, an attempted murder, robberies and other incidents where guns were fired to threaten or intimidate people. It has also been connected to a number of suspects going as far back as 2011. But police believe that a family member assisted Bush in disposing of the weapon and threw the gun into the sea shortly after the killing.
As Cayman faces yet another spike in violent gun crime and is battling to get all illegal firearms off the streets, Customs and Border Control (CBC) Director Charles Clifford told CNS that the existence of the ‘guns for hire’ reflects the fact that while the illegal arrival of guns in Cayman is a serious and challenging problem, there are far fewer illegal weapons in circulation than the crime spike suggests.
“We still have too many guns on the streets,” he said, noting that most of the guns being smuggled into Cayman and used in crimes are coming on drug canoes. But the fact that people are sharing weapons shows that they are not as common as the public might think.
He said that CBC officers had seen very few firearms coming through the official ports of entry, where they could be hidden in appliances or other legitimate cargo. “If you’re importing illegal guns, you are more likely to choose a drug boat over a controlled point of entry where the packages are scanned,” Clifford said.
At the airport, CBC officers most often turn up ammunition and sometimes guns legally owned by American travellers who accidentally leave bullets in bags or do not understand that they are not allowed to bring a weapon here. But he said every firearm and all ammunition are seized by his officers, and they are working with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to improve the messaging in the US to stop people accidentally bringing in weapons before they leave.
Clifford said the issue of the ‘guns for hire’ is compounded by ‘ghost guns’, which have no serial numbers. These can be harder to trace and are often made up of various random parts. He said that these types of weapons are increasingly common in this region, and law enforcement agencies across the Caribbean are now seizing more of them than guns that were lawfully manufactured.
Police have already seized at least ten guns so far this year, but given the recent spate of robberies, the business of ‘guns for hire’ appears to be thriving.
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