Four shot dead in Green Hill, SVG; Acting PM calls for collective action on youth violence
Four people were killed and four injured in a shooting in Green Hill, St. Vincent. Acting PM Leacock urged a national response to rising gang violence.
Four killed in Green Hill shooting as Leacock renews call on youth violence
Four residents of St. Vincent and the Grenadines were shot dead in Green Hill on Friday night, iWitness News reports, with four others wounded and hospitalised in stable condition. Acting Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock expressed condolences to the victims' families on Saturday, hours before police convened a press conference at 1 p.m. local time to address the ongoing investigation.
The dead have been identified as Steve King, 22, of Green Hill; Antonio Samuel, 30, of Green Hill; Shaqueil Peters, 26, of Green Hill; and Shevon Chandler, 23, of Paul's Avenue. King's father, Stephen King, 76, was himself shot and killed at his home and business premises in Central Kingstown in May 2025. The four injured victims are aged 16, 17, 20 and 28.
Leacock, who also serves as Minister of National Security and Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown — the constituency in which Green Hill is situated — described the community on NBC Radio as one of the most peaceful in the area. He noted that all of the deceased were under 30, with some younger than 20.
The acting prime minister was speaking in place of Prime Minister Godwin Friday, who was in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, which he addressed on Friday for the first time since the New Democratic Party took office in November. In that address, Friday highlighted the impact of gun violence across the Caribbean, citing Haiti, where armed gangs have seized control of large parts of the capital.
Leacock framed the Green Hill killings as part of a broader pattern of youth anger and gang proliferation. "As the nation would know, I have been speaking to the subject matter over and over again for the last several months," he said. He pointed specifically to a speech the previous Monday at the Grammar School's 118th anniversary, where he urged young people to examine their conduct, and to a warning that students involved in public brawls or criminal behaviour would face firm police action.
The timing compounded the irony. On Friday evening — hours before the shooting — Leacock had addressed the Cadet Force at its 90th anniversary parade, choosing moral courage as his theme and encouraging cadets to lead their communities. "It is obvious to all that gangs proliferate [in] many communities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines," he said on Saturday.
The acting prime minister acknowledged the tension in his public messaging. "I have to be very careful in this regard because any very strong statement presents problems for our investment climate in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which is still indeed a peaceful country. But the reality is, these crimes, these homicides, create a serious nightmare for us."
He said law enforcement continues to operate under acting Commissioner of Police Trevor "Buju" Bailey, but argued that policing alone cannot resolve the crisis. "It requires the whole-of-St. Vincent approach to this resolution," Leacock said. "We all have to move and row in the same direction."
He called on the family, the Church and schools to play active roles as socialisation institutions, and echoed an appeal he made in Parliament following a visit to the New York Police Department last month, specifically urging faith-based communities to engage. "Where success has been seen in this crime and violence situation internationally, it is where there has been a collective approach, in particular that of the faith-based communities," Leacock said.
He drew on a proposal he first advanced more than 25 years ago — a social and spiritual redemption charter for SVG — which emphasised investment in youth organisations and preventative spending over incarceration. He recalled that the annual cost of housing a prisoner then stood at approximately EC$13,000; he estimated the figure is now closer to EC$16,000. By contrast, he said, the government's per-capita contribution to organisations such as the cadets, scouts, girl guides and pathfinders had been a mere five dollars.
Leacock, a former commandant and major in the Cadet Force, returned to that institution to illustrate the depth of the problem. At Friday's anniversary parade, he said, only one Grammar School student was present among the cadets. "Just imagine that: the cadets which were anchored in the Grammar School have a membership of only one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines today," he said.
He contrasted the situation with Barbados, where youth organisations including the Girl Guides and Pathfinders had paraded publicly the same day, projecting civic purpose and discipline.
Leacock disclosed that the Green Hill shooting was not the only violent incident on Friday evening. "At another business house, we had, one more time, a terrible display of youth anger and violence," he said, without providing further details. He closed with a renewed appeal for national unity in addressing what he called "this scourge on the Vincentian society."
Source: iWitness News