The shooting death of a man at his home in Arnos Vale on Saturday morning has brought to three the number of businesspeople who have operated near the gap to the sporting complex who have been murdered since 2023.
Police have identified the shooting victim as Peter Minors, a 48-year-old businessman of Arnos Vale, adding that preliminary information indicates that Minors was shot multiple times at his home around 2:45 a.m.
He was subsequently transported to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown, where he received medical attention but later died, bringing the homicide count this year to 32, according to police figures.
Investigations into the killing are ongoing, police said in a statement, and have asked people with information that can assist to come forward.
“Persons with information are encouraged to come forward, regardless of how insignificant the information may appear,” the statement said.
As is usually the case, the terse statement offered no details about the killing or insight into theories.
However, people who pay close attention to crime in St. Vincent and the Grenadines have noted that three people — one of them a woman — who at one point operated a business in that area of Arnos Vale have been shot and killed since 2023.
On April 11, 2023, Jomo Brudy aka Top Dog, of Edinboro, died in hospital hours after he and another man were shot in Pole Yard, Arnos Vale.
Brudy was a vendor in Kingstown at the time of his death but used to ply his trade in the same area of Arnos Vale before relocating to the city.
It was the fourth time that Brudy was being shot and the second time in a year.
His assailants shot him in his upper body, including the shoulder, neck, chest and abdomen, resulting in his death.
He had survived a gun attack in Pole Yard on March 3, 2022, that claimed the life of another man and left a third nursing gunshot injuries.
On Dec. 3, 2008, Brudy was also left with gunshot injuries while a woman was killed after they came under gunfire in Ottley Hall.
Then, on May 8, 2009, Brudy survived a gunshot to the scrotum outside his Edinboro home one day after testifying in the preliminary inquiry into the woman’s death, for which another Ottley Hall man was jailed for 20 years in November 2012.
In May 2022, after eight months in custody, Brudy was cleared of murder in connection with the death of Rillan Hill resident Shawn “Darkie” Gordon, who was found dead in Edinboro on Dec. 19, 2010, with a gunshot injury to the head.
The other Arnos Vale vendor who was shot and killed since 2023 was Marilyn John aka Maro, who was shot and killed in Paul Over on Oct. 29, 2024, three months after her son, Jomarl John, was shot and killed in Pole Yard on July 13, 2024.
Ms John, who operated near the supermarket at the sporting complex gap in Arnos Vale, was shot a few hundred feet from where she lived, next to another man who was murdered earlier in 2024.
Multiple police units responded around 9:30 p.m. to reports of loud explosions in the Paul Over area that did not sound like the traditional blowing of bamboo.
When officers arrived, they saw John’s van crossways in the road with several windows shot out.
She was unresponsive and lying back in the vehicle with blood flowing from her body. She was later pronounced dead at the scene, becoming the 39th homicide victim in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2024.
Minors had made news headlines in August 2024, when police charged him and Glen Louisien, a 22-year-old Labourer of St. Lucia, with possession of controlled drugs
Louisien pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of 2,132 grammes (4.7lbs) of cannabis with intent to supply it to another in Arnos Vale on Aug. 26, 2024.
Minors pleaded not guilty, and the charge against him was withdrawn.
Louisien was ordered to pay a fine of EC$1,500 within one month or spend three months in prison.