The victim was identified as Robert Macford Bush, 28, of West Bay.
According to Royal Cayman Islands Police, Mr. Bush’s Honda motor car was seen on Captains Joe and Osbert Road near Birch Tree Hill Road around 11.20pm Tuesday.
Mr. Bush, who was inside the vehicle, had been shot in the head and could not be revived by CPR. Police said armed officers – who were on West Bay Road at the time of the shooting conducting traffic checks – arrived on the shooting scene within five minutes after the killing was reported.
No arrests were reported by press time Wednesday.
The 911 call came from a woman who was inside the Honda with Mr. Bush at the time the shooting occurred. She was believed to have been hit by pellets from a shotgun that was fired into the car, according to witnesses. However, she survived the attack and was released from hospital Wednesday morning.
It was believed several shots were fired in the direction of the vehicle while it was on Captains Joe and Osbert Road, possibly with more than one weapon, by suspects who approached the car on foot. However, police commanders could not immediately confirm how many shots were fired, how many weapons were used or how many suspects were involved in the attack.
Shortly after the shooting, there was also a brief scuffle reported at the crime scene that involved the woman who survived the attack and another female. Police said they were aware of the incident and that “appropriate action would be taken”.
The Caymanian Compass spoke with Mr. Bush’s family members who told the newspaper they believed the Tuesday night shooting was done in retaliation for an attack in late July that occurred in the vicinity of a West Bay bar known as Club Inferno.
Mr. Bush was one of three men charged in connection with that incident. Police officers said a man was assaulted outside the club by a group of suspects who struck him on the head with a bottle and threatened him with a firearm. The injured man from the July attack was taken to hospital for treatment and survived.
Another man involved in the 27 July attack outside the club had recently been acquitted in connection with the March 2010 killing of Alrick Peddie, 25, in West Bay. However, Mr. Bush – the victim from Tuesday’s homicide – had nothing to do with the March 2010 shooting, police said.
Police said they were looking into claims of retaliation and reports that the incident was gang-related.
“We don’t think this was an accident, put it that way,” said RCIPS Chief Superintendent John Jones. “It’s clear that somebody had a motive and this is for us to establish.”
Please see Thursday’s editions of the Caymanian Compass for the full story…
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To the government of the Cayman Islands
Governor, Premier, and entire Legislature, PPM and UDP.
Are you convinced now that we need to hire a Police chief that these thugs are afraid of instead of our Police Comm being afraid of them and don’t know what to do?
Do you now get the message that the criminals are in charge instead of Commissioner David Baines or are you waiting for them to come after you too?
What is happening on this island?!?!?! PLEASE, SOMEONE, DO SOMETHING! It is great that the Premier and the LA held closed-door meetings with the Governor and Chief of Police. Please tell the public that you are going to take action, and things are going to improve!
A national crime strategy was supposed to be released MONTHS ago, and was never released, and no update or reason given.
Murder, armed robbery, car-jackings, home invasions. These are all REGULAR OCCURRENCES in Cayman. You can’t go one week without reading about crime in the paper.
THINGS ARE OUT OF CONTROL, AND THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO STEP UP AND DO SOMETHING!!!
It is shameful that the lead story in the paper is bickering about government dealings with the Ritz in 2009. Instead of concentrating on real problems, our leaders are too busy making political attacks upon each other. Shame on all of them.
There is an obvious problem here. I urge you all to call your MLA and ask what they plan to do to get the crime problem under control in Cayman.
Unfortunate and sad. My condolences goes out to his mother and family members. Now the witness must talk. She must know something. If there was also a heated incident, the people living there must have seen or heard something. There is no excuse to say you’re scare to give the police information. There is Cayman Crime Stoppers online. You can find the website on the internet and make an Anonymous report.
You can beat on the police and the government, and they should do better, but these people AND their families all know each other and know who did what. There are plenty of witnesses to all these incidents but they are criminals themselves and are not going to do to the police. Got to do some undercover work.
Government need to PICK UP THAT CENSUS LIST and find these thugs,if they had fingerprinting.
Next they need to imprison all these criminals killing, robbing and looting, Caymanian, Jamaican, Us.Canadian, Trinidadian, PHilipipno, Honduran and all their backsides need to be DEPORTED.
start DEPORTING these criminals away from here and lock up the Caymanians, what part of that can’t you not understand?
NEXT government need to REVOKE AND DEOPROT ALL THOSE CRIMINALS THAT WERE granted cayman status. Those status grants need to be revoked.There is no work for them it was illegal the way the status was granted and it has created mayhem for the Police to handle as well as the community can not accommodate so many people UNDOCUMENTED,NO FINGERPRINTING AND NO GOVERNMENT ID. My god how stupid can one be trying to run a country and not know who people are or who is in the country the height of IGNORANCE.
When are yo u people going to use your own common sense and stop these UK police leaders from making an [expletive] of yourselves. You’re not even able to identify anyone because they are not fingerprinted like the lady said. In order to be identified we need their picture ID in the police Cars so they can call in and see what/who they are dealig with! this is an insult to our intelligence. Is this some kind of punishment inflicted on the Caymanian people or just simple an April fools joke?
We don’t know who is going to train these guys to protect the community nor do we know of anyone qualified to train them. so at the end of the day dear Caymanians you may have to ARM YOURSELVES.
It should always be taken into account who the shooter supported politically and who the victim supported poliically. How was any of them involved with the political parties and were they close to any politicial elected or not. Did they speak out recently against anyone of high stature, rich or wealthy. RCIP we need to know.
Bring back capital punishment.
Even if you are wrong its one less prisoner to pay for.
What I found puzzling, reading this report, is that no name of the victim was given; it certainly can’t be for the reason that they’re waiting to inform his next of kin.
The lady’s already given away too much that she should now be paid for…I’m not being funny, here.
They will take her letter, use the advice given and take all the credit for themselves, if they can ever have the sense to take her advice in the first place.
Please, don’t ever overestimate the sense, skills or professionalism of those who are being paid public funds to keep Cayman safe…
Its now looking like kidnappings and murders and now, clearly a public execution, is the order of the day.
No one is safe in Cayman any longer.
An event like this only amplifies the fact that 100% of the people on our islands are negatively affected but such an act.
There is probably not one person who hasn’t heard about the killing.
It’s become part of our casual conversation and people don’t even realize it.
It’s becoming a part of our culture to read about it daily and accept it.
I surmise if some criminal act wasn’t posted for a few days everyone would suspect a police/government cover-up; a blanket of all news that wasn’t positive.
This shouldn’t be a part of our everyday lives.
We have to stop this in whatever manner possible!