Men arrested in Andrew Baptist killing

Royal Cayman Islands Police said Wednesday that two men were arrested early in the morning in connection with the 15 September shooting death of Andrew Baptist.

The arrests were made during police operations in Newlands and in West Bay, police said.

The suspects have been arrested on suspicion of murder, but they were not immediately charged, police said.

Mr. Baptist, 24, was the second of five young men to die in shootings that occurred in mid-September. His death outside a home on Sand Hole Road was believed to be a retaliatory shooting and was connected by police with the killing of Robert Macford Bush, 28, less than 48 hours earlier.

Mr. Baptist’s name had come up in connection with the slaying of Mr. Bush on 13 September, according to RCIPS Superintendent Marlon Bodden.

“Our investigation [into Mr. Bush’s killing] did feature that name [Andrew Baptist] being mentioned,” Mr. Bodden said at the time. However, the police service’s chief investigator would only identify Mr. Baptist as a person of interest in connection with the earlier shooting and did not state whether he was believed to have been a witness or a suspect.

The string of gang-related shootings in West Bay – which also led to the death of Preston Rivers on 17 September – was believed to stem from a dispute involving two local gangs, the Logwoods and Birch Tree Hill factions, according to police.

Two other deadly shootings that occurred later on in September in George Town and East End were not directly connected by police to the West Bay violence. Police have since arrested and charged one suspect in the East End slaying of Asher McGaw.