The shooting death of a teenage male of Layou, sometime between Saturday evening and Sunday morning, may be linked to the double murder that occurred at Stoney Ground in Kingstown on Friday afternoon, sources have said.
Police are investigating the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Perrance Matthews, of Layou, whose body was found along the river defence in Buccament Bay, with gunshots to the head and chest.
Residents reported hearing gunshots in the area on Saturday. Matthew’s death brings the homicide count to 13. There were 40 homicides in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2025.
It is understood that Matthews was a relative of 29-year-old Enrique John aka Shoubu, of Layou, who was shot dead in Kingstown on Friday afternoon.
Additionally, iWitness News was reliably informed that Matthews was at some point linked to the gang operating in his community and its associates — based in Central Kingstown.
The Central Kingstown gang is at war with factions based in Rose Place (Bottom Town), Kingstown and Ottley Hall — two West Kingstown communities.
Sources in the know told iWitness News that a war has broken out between the two gangs and their factions.
Additionally, John is said to have been part of a group in conflict with a family in Layou, linked to the Bottom Town gang.
John died inside a shop at the Russells Shopping Centre and 22-year-old Raheem Guy, John’s close associate, was shot and killed on the sidewalk outside the Caribbean Medical Imaging Centre.
It is understood that John and Matthews were associated with two gangs in Kingstown. Sources have said that there is a connection between the Buccament Bay and Stoney Ground killings.
John was killed less than 72 hours after police made an application for the court to revoke his bail after he breached a curfew imposed by the court as part of his bail on a second attempted murder charge.
He was on EC$50,000 bail for attempted murder on fellow Layou resident Tilon Patterson, a crime for which he was charged in February and which allegedly occurred last November.
Both John and Patterson were shot on Nov. 2, 2025, while travelling along the public road in the Central Leeward town.
At the time, iWitness News, citing sources, reported that the two men appeared to have been shot during a shootout by unknown assailants.
When John appeared in court on that charge, he was ordered to have no contact with Patterson and to report to the Layou Police Station on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
As part of his bail conditions, he was also placed on curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 6 a.m.
However, on April 5, John was seen at an entertainment event in Central Leeward sometime after 8:30 p.m. and police later arrested and charged him for breaching the curfew.
On Tuesday, when John was taken before the Serious Offences Court, a witness testified that John had intended to leave the event earlier, and that she was driving to the event to give him a ride when police stopped her, telling her she could not proceed.
The prosecution’s application to revoke John’s bail failed.
Friday afternoon, John was killed and 24 hours later, Matthews was shot and killed.
Matthew was killed just weeks before he was to celebrate his 20th birthday in May.
Conflict broke out between Layou and Kingstown-based gangs in 2023 resulting in four murders in six weeks and several people shot and injured since then.
It ended a five-year period in which Layou had gone without registering any homicides.
John was among six people awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder, robbery, firearm and ammunition possession, and damage to property in connection with a daylight robbery at the GECCU branch office in South Rivers in July 2024.
Among his other news headlines was one in August 2017, when he and fellow Layou residents Dennis Prescott and Sherwin Miller were booked on offences related to the alleged rape of a girl who was older than 13 years but not under the age of 15.
