Argyle man gunned down in McKies Hill 2 days after death threat

A 26-year-old Argyle man was gunned down and his girlfriend shot and injured at the side of Level Garden-McKies Hill bypass road on Tuesday, two days after he told his father he had received a death threat.

Romario Bynoe aka Stormy was shot and killed while waiting for help after a rented car he was driving ran off the road in McKies Hill.

He died at the scene while his girlfriend, Annette Frederick, who was shot in her legs, was taken to hospital for medical attention.

iWitness News was reliably informed that Romario was driving along Level Garden-McKies Hill by-pass road sometime Tuesday afternoon when his rented car crashed into the side of the road.

Romario telephoned his girlfriend, telling her about the accident and that he could not pick up her child, as planned.

He also called the vehicle owner, who said they would attend the scene.

iWitness News understands that Romario had been waiting along the side of the road for more than 45 minutes when he was shot.

By the time the shooting occurred, his girlfriend had picked up the child and gone to the scene of the accident where she and Romario would be shot around 5:30 p.m.

Police responded and took the injured woman to the hospital.

The child was not harmed in the shooting that took place in a parking space of an apartment building that borders the roadside.

Bynoe’s father, Kerwyn Bynoe, who also goes by the alias “Stormy”, told iWitness News at the scene of the shooting that he was at an upholstery shop in Stubbs when Frederick called saying that Romario was shot and killed in McKies Hill.

The father said that Frederick was crying so much that it was difficult for him to understand what she was saying, but she asked him to come to the area.

Bynoe said Frederick told her that Romario had called her earlier saying that he had gotten into an accident and could not go to collect her child.

After picking up the child, Frederick went to meet Romario and they were talking together at the side of the road when she felt something sting her, Bynoe told iWitness News, recounting his conversation with Frederick.

Bynoe said Frederick said she then saw Romario fall to the ground and she started to scream.

Bynoe said that Romario, the third of his eight children, lived elsewhere but they had a good relationship.

He said he last saw him alive sometime after 5 p.m. Monday when he dropped his stepmother home.

Bynoe said his son asked for money for gas and he and his (the deceased) sister both gave him money.

“Me and he get along good. If anything, he would call me and tell me he get in trouble. I would ask him how he get in trouble and I would talk to him.

“He came and make a couple complaints already and me tell him to go and make a report in the [police] station.”

Bynoe said his son complained to him on Sunday that someone had sent him a message saying they would kill him.

“Me tell him go and make a report,” the father told iWitness News.

The father did not comment on the person who had allegedly threatened his son.

He said he did not believe that Romario had made the report to the police because he did

not like to go to the police station.

In October 2017, Romario was sentenced to six months in prison for possession of two rounds of 9mm ammunition without a licence.

He was further sentenced to 12 months in prison for possession of three rounds of 5.56mm prohibited ammunition without a license issued under the Firearms Act.

Then, in November 2017, he was sentenced to three months in prison for possession of a homemade firearm.

Bynoe’s death brings to 29 the number of people killed in St. Vincent and the Grenadines this year, following a record 55 homicides in 2023, of which 52 were classified as murders.

On Friday, an unknown assailant(s) shot and injured six people as they were socialising in Paul’s Avenue.

The shooting took place on the first anniversary of the mass shooting in Kingstown that claimed five lives, including  a Paul’s Avenue resident.