A screenshot of camera footage of the crime scene
After both cars arrive together Sabine Gousse can be seen in a white shirt after exiting the car on the left and approaching the driver of the car on the right.
Seconds later she walks back and gets back in the car. So does the driver of the other car. But the man then gets back out again and starts shooting and runs after the car driven by Olivier Arrindell.
PHILIPSBURG--“F**k you,” Oualichi Movement for Change (OMC) leader Olivier Arrindell says to anyone who concludes that there is no political motive for the attempt on his life that resulted in the fatal shooting of his wife. “How can you come to this conclusion without being privy to the information, the WhatsApp messages that made me decide to meet the person, these texts that are now part of a murder investigation?”
“The Daily Herald” (TDH) interviewed Arrindell on Thursday evening. He had been discharged from the hospital earlier that day. The OMC leader, accompanied by his party members, was at a confidential location under police protection.
“I started my political discourse fighting against corruption,” Arrindell said. “I cannot show you the text messages I received, as they are now part of the investigation, but this has opened up a Pandora’s box. My wife is dead. She was my guardian angel who made sure that I did not get murdered.”
TDH: She stepped in front of you?
Arrindell: Yes, she stepped in front of me, but the shooter was not very skilled. He was firing wildly, and I drove off quickly to get away and reach Maho.
TDH: Can you walk us through what happened? Why were you in Porto Cupecoy on Wednesday night?
Arrindell: I set up the meeting spot there instead of in French Quarter. I had received a message, very well-articulated, not written by someone capable of such a crime. I was told there were documents for me to pick up – confidential information they wanted to give me.
The OMC leader had previously been asked to come to French Quarter after receiving detailed information via text message at 11:30am on Wednesday. The request was not unusual, as Arrindell had received numerous documents, in print or on a USB stick, in the past.
Arrindell: “One must understand that when someone provides me information, I bring it out. So it is not me who has the information, it is the person that has the information that is close to them [involved in corruption] that brings it out.”
However, on Wednesday morning, all OMC members were busy campaigning for the August 19 snap elections, handing out flyers. Arrindell messaged the unknown informant back that he preferred to meet at Porto Cupecoy in the evening, at 9:30pm.
TDH: Why Porto Cupecoy?
Arrindell: Because there are cameras. He wanted me to meet at the border, but I realised that this person did not know the area. He parked near the path towards the beach, the entrance of which is between Sapphire Beach Resort and the Blue Mall, and I stayed on the main road. My wife turned to me, and said: “Baby, let me go get the papers.”
TDH: It turned out there were no documents?
Arrindell: It was a set-up. If I would have stepped out of the car to get “the documents”, I would have been murdered in front of my wife and child, and he would have drove off.
TDH: She stepped out.
Arrindell: She said: “Baby, let me go get the papers,” stepped out and walked towards the guy, who did nothing. He sat in the car and did not give her no papers. My wife walked back to the car and stood by the passenger side. The guy then came out of his car, walked towards the back, slammed his trunk, and then Laurence, who was in the back of our car, started shouting: “He has a gun. Let’s go, let’s go.”
TDH: He shot your wife?
Arrindell: He shot Sabine, and she fell in the car, on the passenger side. Laurence shielded my daughter and he got shot in the arm. I was shot in the back. I heard Laurence saying: “Let’s go, let’s go,” and I tried to get away as fast as possible. Shots were fired at the back of the car.
TDH: Do you know the shooter?
Arrindell: The light was in front of me, I couldn't make out a face. All I know is that my wife is dead.
The OMC leader contests having been ambushed, there was one shooter, he said. However, there could have been other persons in the car, which had tinted glass. Arrindell is adamant this was a set-up, a premeditated murder, a poorly executed plan for a political assassination.
“I have received documents on a stick before and I did not get shot for it,” Arrindell said, underscoring that he thought he was careful enough to not get harmed. “I exposed many acts of corruptions in my videos, and this was based on facts.”
TDH: What is going to happen with you now?
Arrindell: I continue. What do you want: You want war, or you want peace? You killed my wife, what am I supposed to do to you? Kill you back, right? But that is not what I am going to do. Because that is not what my wife wants to be done. My wife wants peace. She would not have wanted to die in vain. I have a 10-year-old daughter to take care of that does not have a mother any more. The family is coming in to help her. We got to get things going, we got to continue with the political movement, we have to continue the journey. My wife would never want me to stop. The question is what you are going to do.
TDH: Meaning?
Arrindell: What are the media going to do? Stop being biased. Start reporting what needs to be reported. This country is about cronyism and nepotism. It is not about what Olivier is going to do, it is about what the media are going to do: no radio station is even looking at that. The news is like: Wow, so sad that this controversial politician got shot.
The OMC leader called on the media to expose corruption in all its forms. “One of the biggest problems in this country is the information that is being shared.” According to Arrindell, the local media are supporting a government that has authority, but is not taking responsibility for the well-being of all residents.
“We have to change this,” Arrindell concluded.
