Just seven days after walking free from prison following a years-long sentence for illegal weapons possession, 30-year-old Akeem Ferdinand of Rockies, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was shot and killed in his home community on Thursday. His violent death marks the latest in a growing wave of deadly gun violence that has pushed the small Caribbean nation’s annual homicide count to 31, according to local law enforcement.
Police confirmed in an official statement released Friday that officers were dispatched to Rockies at approximately 8:05 p.m. Thursday after receiving multiple calls reporting the sound of gunfire in the area. When first responders arrived at the scene, they found Ferdinand, a local labourer, suffering from multiple apparent gunshot wounds across his body. A medical professional attended the scene and pronounced Ferdinand dead shortly after arrival, authorities confirmed, noting that a post-mortem examination will be carried out in the coming days to confirm the exact cause of death. As of Friday, investigations into the shooting remain ongoing, with no suspects named or motives publicly disclosed.
Ferdinand’s death has put him back in the public eye, echoing repeated headlines he generated throughout his life, which included repeated run-ins with the law over illegal weapons charges. His most recent incarceration dated back to 2022, when he was handed a 75-month prison sentence for a 9mm pistol authorities found under his pillow during a 2021 search warrant execution. The search, carried out as part of an ongoing burglary investigation, found Ferdinand and a 15-year-old girl naked and asleep in his bed. Along with the unlicensed pistol, officers seized 19 rounds of 9mm ammunition and 552 grammes of cannabis that Ferdinand was accused of possessing with intent to distribute. He received an additional 24-month sentence for the illegal ammunition, ordered to run concurrently with his weapons sentence, and was fined EC$1,500 to avoid extra prison time for the cannabis charge. When officers first discovered the weapon, Ferdinand responded, “Jah! Boy, I ain’t even remember that dey dey,” but declined to answer further questions during formal police questioning. During a 2022 trial break, he made headlines again after expressing shock that a woman had posted a photo of herself posing with his unlicensed weapon on Facebook.
That 2022 sentence came just months after Ferdinand completed a five-year prison sentence for a prior illegal weapons conviction. In 2017, he was originally handed a six-year sentence for possession of an unlicensed Uzi pistol and 12 rounds of ammunition, a sentence that was reduced to five years on appeal. At that 2017 sentencing, Ferdinand blamed alcohol for his offense, telling the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court, “If I wasn’t drunk that night, I wouldn’t ah come across that gun.” When a magistrate asked if alcohol led him to find the weapon, Ferdinand clarified, “It make me pick it up and walk with it when I should ah leave it there.”
Ferdinand’s killing comes just 24 hours after another high-profile fatal shooting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. On Wednesday, 52-year-old Michael Jackson, a resident of Yambou, was shot and killed by a police officer in Mesopotamia during an investigation into a reported theft of funds from a local bingo event. Authorities allege Jackson brandished a cutlass when the responding officer approached him to recover the stolen money, leading the officer to open fire.