Four killed in shooting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, manhunt underway

A shooting in Green Hill, near the capital Kingstown, left four dead and four injured. Police are still searching for suspects as gang violence continues to rise.

Four shot dead near Kingstown as police launch manhunt

A shooting in the Green Hill district of St. Vincent and the Grenadines left four people dead on Friday night, newsday.com reports. Police launched a manhunt after officers found two bodies on a public road, a third inside a parked vehicle, and a fourth on adjacent land.

"Two bodies were met lying on the public road, the body of a female was discovered in a vehicle that was parked on the public road, and on an adjacent piece of land another body was discovered," acting Police Commissioner Trevor Bailey said at a Saturday news conference. Bailey confirmed the corpses had what appeared to be gunshot wounds.

Four additional people were injured in the incident, two of whom remained hospitalised. No arrests had been made as of Saturday, and police said they were still working to establish a motive. Authorities also registered a separate killing on Saturday and are investigating whether it is connected to the Friday night attack.

National Security Minister St. Clair Leacock condemned the shootings, describing them as "unfortunate" and "unnecessary" in remarks on local outlet NBC Radio. He acknowledged that gang violence has troubled many communities across the country, despite St. Vincent and the Grenadines remaining a broadly peaceful nation.

"These homicides create a serious nightmare for us," Leacock said.

Police figures show 37 murders have been recorded so far this year in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a former British colony with a population of around 110,000. The archipelago comprises 32 islands and cays in the eastern Caribbean and depends heavily on tourism as its primary source of income. It is widely known for volcanic landscapes, coral reefs and white sand beaches, and serves as a popular yachting destination, with several private islands catering to wealthy visitors.

Source: Google News VC — Crime