The killing of a Kingstown Co-operative Credit Union (KCCU) member inside its headquarters on Granby Street on Wednesday, allegedly by an on-duty security guard, has left seven people without a father, and a mother unable to come to terms with her loss.
Shernard Gloster, of Glebe Hill, Barrouallie would have celebrated his 48th birthday on Tuesday.
However, instead of a birthday celebration, his family is planning a funeral for the man whose death means that six males will grow up without the guidance of their father.
Gloster, a construction worker, had come home from Tortola to attend his son’s graduation from secondary school as well as to spend time with his younger sons and his grandchildren.
Last Wednesday, he went to KCCU, of which his family has traditionally been members, to get money to send his youngest sons, aged 7 and 5, overseas to meet their mother.
However, Gloster ended up dead on the floor of the credit union’s headquarters, shot in the chest, allegedly by an on-duty security guard who had reportedly pulled him out of a queue he had rejoined after sitting in a chair.
On Friday, his mother, Mary Gloster, self-employed, also of Glebe Hill, Barrouallie, spoke to iWitness News while sitting at the entrance to the patio of her house, which boundaries the main road in the Central Leeward town.
“I’m feeling like I’m going crazy. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat since that day. Where I am here, I am forcing to talk because my head — I find like my pressure raise up,” she told iWitness News.
“I feel like I am going to drop. You think it is easy? This is the third day and your mouth ain’t wet.”
She said she was about to go to Kingstown on Wednesday when she heard the mother of one of Shernard’s sons call out to the child.
Gloster said she asked what had happened and was told that there was word that Shernard had been shot.
However, she dismissed this and caught a van to Kingstown, saying, “‘That’s not true. I cancelled that negative talk.’
“Because I know he is not a boy like that to want to go and make trouble,” Mary told iWitness News.
“I didn’t believe it. I can’t believe that,” the mother said.
She said that when she got to Kingstown, someone told her that they had greeted her daughter, who had responded that she could not pay them any mind because she had to go up the road.
Gloster told iWitness News that when she got to the area of the credit union, her brother told her, “Mary, O God. You know they kill Boyie!’
“I nearly drop down; I start to bawl. I couldn’t take it; [even] until now,” the mother told iWitness News, adding that she had been unable to sleep or eat since her son was killed.
“Just like I’m losing my head,” said the woman, who said she is hypertensive.
Gloster told iWitness News that the police had not notified her about what had happened.
However, one of her sons later told her and iWitness News that the police had come to visit earlier on Friday, but she was not at home.
Gloster further said that Guardsman SVG Ltd., the security firm with which the guard was employed, had not contacted her.
On Friday, the company issued a statement saying it was “aware of the formal charges against one of its employees, in relation to the unfortunate incident that occurred on July 9, 2025 at Kingstown Co-operative Credit Union Ltd.
“The Company is actively cooperating with the authorities. The incident stands in direct contravention to the Company’s core values, rigorous training programmes and clearly communicated policies,” the statement said.
Gloster said she had been a member of KCCU since her children were small, and they later joined as well.
“He would send his money from Tortola to put there,” she said, adding that her son went to the credit union to get money to buy plane tickets for his sons.
Gloster told iWitness News that someone who witnessed the shooting told her that it was avoidable.
“The guy (the deceased) go in one line and he go and sit down. And after he go and sit down now, when his time come, he get up — because he do a surgery last month — and he get up and go back to where he was in the line,” she said, recounting what she had been told about the incident.
Gloster said that her son underwent surgery to remove his appendix last month.
“And then the security guard was picking on a woman because the woman was playing her phone and he was telling her take off her phone and not make any noise in there,” Gloster further said of what she had been told.
Her account of what might have at the credit union’s office closely mirrors what was captured by surveillance footage at the co-operative.
Shernard’s interaction ended with him being shot in the chest and dying on the floor inside the credit union.
Wadie Simon, 60, of Brighton, has been charged with murder in connection with the death.
“The thing buss his heart,” Gloster told iWitness News, adding that a doctor told her that her son’s death was instantaneous and he could not have survived the gunshot injury.
Gloster told iWitness News that she was well known to the staff of the credit union.
“Only the new manager ain’t know me. Everybody in the credit union there know me because I joined that credit union since they have the board building down the road.”
Gloster told iWitness News that she went to the credit union on Friday to follow up on an unrelated matter.
“I was there. I was so angry. I said, ‘I can’t sleep. I am in pain. I can’t even make it.’
“I see two of the same security come in there. I said, ‘If you all want to kill me, just kill me because I don’t care right now. Me nah concern. You will understand a mother’s pain?’” said Gloster, who had seven children, one of whom died some years ago.
She described her son as a “nice” person.
“Cool is he. … My foot gave me some problems, he done send money…
“Right now, I don’t want anybody to talk in my head. Even people who are close to me, I don’t want them to call out to me or even tell me condolences. Don’t tell me that. I can’t sleep when night come. I am just grieving, grieving for my boy. When I watched my boy yesterday when they were going to perform the autopsy on him…” the mother said.
Meanwhile, the deceased man’s brother told iWitness News that he was the best of their mother’s sons.
“Me have my ways. I will drink. My brother doesn’t trouble people. When the thing happen, people were thinking it was me because they didn’t expect someone to just walk up to my brother and shot him. If you walk through the village and ask anybody, you will hear what they say about him.”
The security company should be made to compensate and support Gloster’s children who are now fatherless because of this criminal, whom, they employed. Honestly, I know this is wishful thinking, because ,this happened in a country, where rule of law changes or bends depending on the status of those involved.
This is so sad. I can’t begin to imagine the pain his mother, his children, and siblings are going through. Let’s keep them in prayer.
This was bound to happen because since COVID, we have created a situation where security guards have this misplaced new sense of power. In many of these businesses you wonder what is the security’s role. At BOSVG they even pin cards. But a lot of them are too aggressive to customers. Businesses need to take responsibility for their customer service and use the security in the event they need assistance to enforce. Condolences to his entire family. This was so avoidable.
I would have diex if it was my son. These triger happy men she lost in jail. Security or security not.
It sad. So why the security guard shot him p
My condolences to Mary Gloster and my advice to her is that she gets herself a good lawyer who would bring a CIVIL law suit against KCCU where the wrongful death of the young man occurred and who was there to conduct business as a customer and, Guardsman SVG LTD, the employer of the “trigger hungry killer” (who apparently was operating as a Lord-unto-himself when he shot the deceased for no justifiable reason), for wrongful death and full compensatory damages.
I am wondering if these business places that hire initial security officers now need to hire a second set of security officers just to protect their customers doing business on their premises from any trigger-hungry security officers (WHO shoot and kill FIRST then ask questions AFTER!! (If it weren’t so serious a matter, it would surely have been laughable).
The Police can only bring CRIMINAL charges against the “trigger-hunger killer”, who, if convicted for murder, would just spend perhaps a portion of his life incarcerated before being released, and worst still, he might not have to face the hangman’s noose at all, if not being released after serving time.
BTW, does SVG still carry out hanging? As of July 2025, how many persons are there on death row at Belile Penitentiary and at His Majesty’s Prisons just sitting there and eating tax-payer’ hard earned tax dollars with three “square” meals per day? What is the fate of these hundreds of convicted murderers sitting in prison since 2001? Are they waiting to be hang or to be released? Who is the Minister of National Security again???
LORD HELP US VINCIES IN OUR HOUR OF NEED!!!
Verol Johnson, just looking at the man face says a lot, look very 😈
Let’s see how the judge will handle this issue. I believe there are incidents where the police do the same thing to unarmed persons.
hello
This killing should be condemned in every corner of SVG. It is unjust, brazen and unfair to the general public.
Although a full investigation has not yet concluded, it is reasonable to conclude that Simon, the alleged killer did not follow the protocols that were a part of his training manuals. His employer swiftly denounced his behavior. However, as an employer or agent of Simon they are also liable for the death of Mr Glouster.
Many of the banks or credit unions that operate in St Vincent fo not have a fast lane to cater for the needs of seniors or individuals who are physically challenged. This is unfortunate, the question that any reasonable person will like to ask is why Simon appears to be so trigger happy to take the life of an innocent person? It would appear that Simon was a bonafide gunslinger.
This shooting leaves many questions:
1. Was this shooting really about rejoining a line?
2. Was there a conversation and or other possible solution beside firing a gun?
3. Was the shooting personal?
4. Is Wadie Simon–security guard mentally stable? his action–shooting, does not align with the offence–rejoining a line.