A deadly weekend shooting in the parish of St. James has shaken Barbados, leaving three men dead and a fourth person hospitalized with injuries. Within hours of the Sunday night attack, Prime Minister Mia Mottley convened an urgent, high-stakes gathering with the island nation’s most senior security and law enforcement leaders to coordinate a response.
Mottley confirmed the meeting via a public post on her social media channels, which included an accompanying photograph of the session. Attendees at the emergency talks included Richard Boyce, Commissioner of the Barbados Police Service, the force’s Deputy Commissioner, and the Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force. The gathering comes as the country confronts the shock of this latest violent incident.
In her statement, Mottley emphasized the government’s unwavering priority in the wake of the tragedy, noting that “In moments like these, nothing matters more than the safety of our people.”
Shortly after the emergency meeting, Police Commissioner Boyce publicly characterized the shooting as a deliberate, targeted act of retaliation between criminal groups. He issued a clear warning to those responsible for the attack: law enforcement will spare no effort to track down and hold every person involved accountable for the violence.