22-Year-Old Fatally Shot in Police-Involved Incident in St Michael District, Barbados

A police-involved shooting on Friday evening has left a 22-year-old man dead and residents of the St Michael district where the incident occurred are accusing lawmen of using unnecessary force.

Police said Jacobi Kamau Grannum was fatally shot in his Odessa McClean Drive, My Lord’s Hill neighbourhood in a confrontation between a group of men and officers who were in the area looking for guns.

Acting Communications and Public Affairs Officer with the Barbados Police Service, Sergeant Liesl Gabriel told reporters on the scene that around 6:05 p.m., officers were executing a search warrant for firearms at a shop in the area and people who were gathered in the vicinity fled in various directions.

“Persons who were gathered in the area of the shop ran away, with most of them running to a bushy area located to the western side,” she said. “The persons or persons who ran to the bushy area opened fire on the police. One of the persons who was in the area of the shop ran in an opposite direction through some tracks, and while running away, he opened fire on the police who were pursuing him.”

One of the officers returned fire at the assailant who continued to flee before collapsing.

Gabriel said the officers moved quickly to offer assistance to the man, calling for an ambulance. However, when ambulance personnel arrived, they “found no signs of life”. Grannum was pronounced dead by a medical doctor.

When a Barbados TODAY team arrived on the scene, angry residents protested the action of lawmen, claiming that police were heavy-handed in the execution of their duties.

Many of them openly voiced their anger and disdain over the events and police actions that unfolded earlier in the evening.