4 minWorld
St. Vincent Police Hunt Gunmen After Green Hill Shooting Kills Four
A Friday night attack in Green Hill near Kingstown left four dead and four wounded, as police investigate a possible link to a separate shooting in Ottley Hall and intensify patrols in a country that markets itself as a luxury Caribbean getaway.
Four people were killed and four others were wounded when gunfire broke out in the Green Hill community near Kingstown, the capital of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, shortly before 10:30 p.m. Friday, according to Acting Commissioner of Police Trevor Bailey.
Officers responding to the scene found two bodies on a public road, while a woman was found dead inside a vehicle parked nearby, Bailey said at a Saturday news conference. A fourth victim was discovered on an adjacent piece of land. All four appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds.
The four wounded were taken to Milton Cato Memorial Hospital. Two were treated and released, while two remained hospitalized at the time of the police briefing. No arrests had been made, and police had not publicly identified a motive.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Brenton Smith said investigators were working to identify those responsible and cautioned against speculation while the investigation remained active. «That determination must be made by investigators based on the evidence and not on rumors or assumptions,» Smith said.
Police were also investigating a separate shooting in Ottley Hall early Saturday and had not determined whether the two incidents were connected. The killings come as authorities grapple with gun and gang violence across the small island nation. Smith said 37 murders have been recorded in St. Vincent and the Grenadines so far this year.
Bailey acknowledged that police have seen instances of retaliatory violence involving rival groups but did not link the Green Hill killings to gang activity. Asked whether criminal groups could be connected to the latest violence, police said the investigation had not reached a point where they could make such a determination.
Authorities said additional patrols, random searches and intelligence operations were underway in Kingstown and surrounding communities as police attempt to recover illegal firearms and prevent further violence. Police appealed for anyone with photographs, video, surveillance footage or information about people or vehicles potentially connected to the shootings to contact investigators.
Local outlet iWitness News reported that the Green Hill attack was one of several shootings in recent years in which multiple people were killed, including a July shooting in Kingstown that left three people dead. The outlet reported the identities of Friday's four victims based on its own sources, though police had not officially released their names when the report was published.
The violence occurred in a country heavily promoted for its secluded Caribbean setting and high-end tourism. St. Vincent and the Grenadines consists of 32 islands and cays and is promoted by the country's tourism authority as a destination for sailing, beaches, coral reefs and secluded getaways. Mustique, one of its inhabited islands, is known for private villas and celebrity visitors, while the broader archipelago is a major destination for yachts and sailing.
The shooting is likely to draw fresh attention to public safety in a nation whose economy leans on visitors seeking quiet, exclusive escapes. For now, police say the priority is identifying those responsible and determining whether the Green Hill attack and the Ottley Hall shooting are linked, a question they say only evidence can answer.
2
