Deandrea Hamilton & Wilkie Arthur 

Editorial Staff

#TurksandCaicosIslands, February 14, 2024 – The Turks and Caicos is not fearing well against illegal guns and the infiltration of these killer weapons, continues to wield its worse in 2024.  

A matter at the start of the month was a sobering reminder that we are not just tallying shootings and homicides, we are losing people.

In the mass shooting incident of February 1, the pain of loss was public and paralyzing.  Families screaming, crying, near fainting and mourning bitterly, loudly as bystanders and law enforcement observed; awestruck and incapable of consoling the relatives who were now faced with such traumatic loss. 

The evil and violent rampage is unconscionable.

Murder, in this way and at this rate is bound to hit home eventually for everyone in the small British overseas territory, home to around 50,000 people.

Sooner or later, it is my son or my brother or my cousin or my co-worker or my boy. It is reaching every doorstep and a threat that knows no bounds.

Mass shootings in the Turks and Caicos have happened in the tourism district of Grace Bay, near school sporting events, within homes and have even been directed at the Police, many times. 

On the night of Thursday February 1st in Providenciales, five men were shot up in the parking lot of the IBO Plaza which is near Beaches Roundabout; gunfire rang out around 10:20 p.m. 

An hour later police would confirm that two were dead, driving the murder count for the Turks and Caicos Islands to four.  That murder tally has quickly soared to seven people murdered so far in 2024 on the islands of Providenciales and Grand Turk.  

Among the victims on this fateful night, roughly thirteen days ago was a young man, who is the younger brother of a TCI Regiment member.  That member was on the same night, called to duty and working with the Royal TCI Police Force at one of its security check points set up in Provo.  

The Regiment member turned up to assist in the investigation and what he would see literally brought him to his knees.  A blood curdling cry is described as he robotically handed over his service weapon, flopped to his knees and wept over one of the bodies.

He shouted, “Not my baby brother!  My brother is a good boy!”

It was chilling and agony laid bare. 

The situation only became more anguishing when his mother arrived.  Together they wept and other relatives of the other victim, also rushed to the crime scene; devastated and inconsolable.

“It was a hollering time out there; it was so emotional out there even the officers struggled to keep their composure.  It is honestly one of the most emotional things I have ever scene.  It was terrible out there, just terrible,” said Wilkie Arthur, Court Correspondent for Magnetic Media.

Shortly after the shooting, reported Arthur, all of the businesses in the complex shut down.  Police began their investigations immediately, getting those operators to re-open presumably for questioning and insight, likely through security cameras.

It is also suspected that this is another retaliatory crime, stemming from the October 19, 2023 murder of Jumillo Isma and Mike Forbes; two men who were slaughtered mere metres away from the Providenciales International Airport terminal.  Isma, was trying to make his way out of the country but would never make the flight bound for London.

The shooting aroused a mixture of reactions.  

There was expressed disappointment that law enforcement seemed incapable of stopping the atrocious killings and frustration at the so called, ‘waste’ of police resources on check points which annoyed law-abiding residents and picked-up mainly on only minor traffic violations. 

Residents pointed out officers were distracted from their original mission, detecting and stopping crime; having now worn out their welcome, the check points were characterized as “predictable” and “ineffective.”

“They should go to where crime is actually happening,” said one resident on social media.

But even with the hyper vigilance of the joint law enforcement team through numerous security check points, the gunman who opened fire at the IBO Plaza were able to get though.  The shooters managed to get through at least three of the police check points.

As the night and the double homicide investigation wore on, it became clearer, that the shooting was meant to crash the party of a group of friends, celebrating a prison release.  Facts also expose that the two who were murdered, were not the intended targets.  

With anyone in earshot able to hear, at the crime scene that night, a bold vow to execute vigilante justice was announced by unknown men.  Police were warned to ready themselves for what was coming.

Within 24 hours, a second mass shooting would rock the country.  Two more murdered and a little girl caught in the spray of bullets.  The ten-year-old girl survived, reported as hospitalised with three gunshot wounds and her father was one of two men murdered.

Another week would pass, and a new shooting would shatter the serenity of the capital.  One young man lay dead in the street, riddled with bullets within yards of a high school sports meet.

It was another traumatic situation for Grand Turk, which only ten days earlier, on January 29th had its own mass shooting where four people were struck, one man fatally.

Incredibly, just eight days of February would pass and tiny Turks and Caicos would record five murders by gunfire.  

On February 10, the Royal TCI Police would announce the first arrests for a 2024 murder.  Three people were taken into custody for the February 8 shooting of a 24-year-old man.  It is a suspected murder plot and being questioned are two young men and a 55-year old woman.

The crimes have been condemned by country leaders and there has been government response to the deadly shootings.  Turks and Caicos will see a new temporary police commissioner and firearms expertise all from the UK and the hope is their tactics will help in stopping the bloodshed and finally put a dent in crime.