KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday has again called on the government of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves to address the crime situation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines after his 62-year-old cousin was shot and killed “execution style” on the northern Grenadine island on Saturday night.
Police said that businessman Frankie Gooding and a friend were boarding a vehicle when an assailant approached and shot him.
He was taken to the Port Elizabeth Hospital, where he subsequently succumbed to his injuries, the police said in a statement.
The police have since released a 13-second video clip of the shooting, saying it is being circulated on social media. They are asking for the assistance of the public in identifying the assailant.
The video clip released by police begins with the assailant standing over Gooding and pointing what appears to be a gun at him. The video has no audio, and the assailant appears to discharge the apparent firearm as the taillight of a truck moved out off the screen.
The assailant, who is wearing a hoodie, then runs away.
Speaking on his weekly radio programme on Monday, Friday said the circumstances of the “terrible, terrible shooting … shocks this community, shocks the entire nation.
“This is a tragedy to have occurred here in this community, or any community in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to anyone, to any family,” Friday said, mere weeks after he urged the government to do more, even as the country recorded a record 42 homicides in 2022.
Friday said crime and violence are generating fear among Vincentians who feel they cannot be safe on the country’s streets.
“And that is the pervading fear throughout this country,” he told listeners.
“A cousin of mine called me last night to extend condolences, express her fear, and say that she locks the doors and windows. She’s afraid in our own home here in Bequia. How did we get to this point?
“We speak about crime and violence as though it is something that is for other persons that it’s somewhere off in the distance. But we have warned over and over again it’s not just a group of a few harmful elements that are doing certain things.
“This comes right home to you. It has to my family and me over the weekend, and other families throughout this country have been mourning and crying weekend after weekend about this terrible blight plaguing our country,” Friday said.
He said that in the face of this reality, the government “basically waves its hand and suggests that somehow there’s nothing you can do about it, that crime is everywhere.
“We know that,” Friday added, “Illness is everywhere, but you have hospitals, and some people recover elsewhere more than they do here in St. Vincent and Grenadines.
“We have to put policies in place to deal with these problems. And when it touches you, you feel it more keenly. That is something that I know that we have been dealing with throughout this country, and we have been speaking about that something needs to be done.”
He said people have to get assurance from the government “that they understand this problem can be addressed.
“It can be tackled if they are proactive and feel that something can be done. But if you think nothing can be done, get out of the way.”
The Grenadines has not recorded many serious crimes that are often recorded on the main island, St. Vincent. However, Friday said last Thursday night, a young woman in Bequia went home from work and was waylaid by someone who stabbed her.
“And she wound up in intensive care in the hospital and Kingstown,” he said, noting another stabbing on Friday.
“And then on Saturday, the execution-style gunning down of a businessman, a family man at his home, his business place in this community, in this country.
“This is very raw for me, and I will speak more about it as time goes on. And our prayers must be with the family of those who suffer this kind of violence and certainly with the wife and the children of my cousin’s most recent victim, my cousin,” Friday told radio listeners.
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