Air Canada pilot slain in Turks and Caicos home
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
TORONTO, Canada: A veteran Air Canada
captain was stabbed to death in his Turks and Caicos Islands dream home,
apparently by intruders, the Toronto Star reports
A suspect was arrested just hours after the slaying of 55-year-old Del Schick
early Friday. The suspect, who has not been
charged, was shot in the leg after he allegedly pulled a firearm when
approached by officers of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police, a
spokesperson said Sunday. The suspect is
reportedly a Haitian boat person, one of the thousands from that neighbouring
strife-torn country who had fled in boats to the Turks and Caicos Islands,
Jamaica, the United States and other territories in the area.
Police Commissioner Paul Harvey said the homicide has shocked the 20,000
residents of the eight inhabited islands of the 40-island British overseas
territory in the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the Bahamas and north of Haiti.
"Murder is not a regular crime here. This was the second for the year, but
sometimes we go for years without a murder," the commissioner, chief of the
island's police, said. He refused to identify
the suspect, because the man has not been charged.
When asked whether the suspect was a Haitian
boat person as reported, the commissioner would only say: "We believe the
suspect is illegally in the country." When
Britain offered the Turks and Caicos independence in the 1980s, the country
tried to become a part of Canada, but was rebuffed.
The islands that are only 150 feet above sea
level at their highest point, are immensely popular with Canadians. Tourism
and fishing are the mainstays of the economy.
Since Air Canada flies there regularly,
Schick was able to live in his dream home and still captain an Airbus 320 for
the airline.
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