The son of a 76-year-old businessman who was gunned down while sitting on the patio of his Green Hill home in May 2025 is among four people shot and killed in the Central Kingstown village Friday night.
Police have not released the names of the deceased, but acting Assistant Commissioner of Police responsible for crime fighting, Brenton Smith, confirmed the deaths to SVGTV at the scene.
The senior police officer also confirmed that four people have been taken to hospital for medical attention, adding that they had what appeared to be gunshot wounds.
The dead and injured
Multiple reliable sources have confirmed the names of the deceased as: Steve King, 22, self-employed, the son of murdered businessman Stephen King, also of Green Hill and fellow villagers Antonio Samuel, 30, and Shaqueil Peters, 26, as well as Paul’s Avenue resident Shevon Chandler, 23.
Meanwhile, a 20-year-old Green Hill woman received injuries to her right hand; a 17-year-old male student received injuries to his right arm, right leg and left hand; a 28-year-old man received injuries to his right arm; and a 16-year-old mechanic received injuries to his left thigh, right forearm and left hand.
They are all said to be in stable condition in hospital.
Smith said police were informed of the shooting around 10:30 p.m.
“The Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force can confirm that it appears that four persons were killed as a result of a shooting incident in the Green Hill area,” Smith said, noting that the shooting took place “not too far from the hard court”.
He noted that the investigation was still ongoing even as he spoke just after midnight Friday, Sept. 25, with members of the Crime Investigation Unit processing the scene.
“So you can understand the difficulties,” Smith said, apparently referring to the limited information that he disclosed.
He said that he had been told that a female was among the victims.
“The investigation is … continuing and we are processing the scene at this time,” he said.
Acting Commissioner of Police Trevor “Buju” Bailey, who preceded Smith as the nation’s crime-fighting chief, was also among officers who responded to the killing.
Videos of the scene suggest that Chandler died inside a vehicle, while two of the males died in the street and another along what appeared to be a dirt track nearby, bringing the homicide count this year to 36, following 40 in 2025, 54 in 2024 and a record 55 in 2023.
Third shooting to claim multiple lives in recent months
The shooting in Kingstown Friday night is the second in the Kingstown conflagration this year that has resulted in multiple deaths and has triggered memories of the July 2023 mass shooting in the city that claimed five lives.
On July 17, Claude John, of Redemption Sharpes and Ottley Hall residents Karon Bowens aka Twin, 35, and Giovannie Grant, 24, were gunned down in Chinatown, Kingstown, the area across the street from the Central Police Station, where shops and other businesses are located between the Solidarity Carpark and the fish market in the capital.
Reports are that two masked gunmen approached from the seaside behind the public washroom and opened fire, killing the three men at the scene.
Police, as is often the case, did not offer any theory on that killing. However, people with information about the workings of criminal elements in the country theorised that John was not a target of the shooting, noting Bowens and Grant’s criminal history.
On April 10, Enrique John aka Shoubu, 29, of Layou, and Raheem Guy, 22, were gunned down in Stony Ground, making the first shooting in Kingstown to result in multiple deaths this year.
John was killed — while on bail for two attempted murder charges — two days after the court allowed his bail to continue, even as he had breached his curfew.
John was also a defendant in the case in which five people were slapped with multiple charges over the robbery of the credit union in South Rivers in July 2024.
Days after John’s murder, his mother was among two people charged with the murder of a Layou resident who has been rumoured to have been involved in his killing.
Crime watchers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines will also remember the mass shooting at a shop in Belmont on May 16, 2025, that claimed three victims: businesswoman Lesline Davis, 68, and her customers Joel Browne and Demeon Cumberbatch.
Police have charged two men, one of whom is said to have a history of mental illness, with murder in connection with that killing.
However, despite offering an EC$50,000 reward, police are yet to lay any charges in connection with the worst documented mass shooting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
On July 19, 2023, D’ondre Hillock, Jamall Bobb, Lamont “Dutchy” Hector, Ricky Taylor Kashie Primus, a 14-year-old student, died when the occupant(s) of a vehicle shot them in Kingstown around 8:30 p.m. in the Harbour Club area of Upper Kingstown.
Police have been unable to gather enough evidence to bring a charge despite the EC$50,000 reward.
On the first anniversary of that killing, six people were shot and injured in Paul Avenue while socialising in the Kingstown community.
Often less mentioned in the reports about mass shootings in SVG are the three people who died after being shot in Paul’s Avenue on Nov. 30, 2024.
They are: Laurence Warren aka Bolo, a 56-year-old pushcart operator of Paul’s Avenue, Don Ashton, a 44-year-old labourer, of Ottley Hall, and Alston “Red Ants” Henry, of Diamond.