SVG News · Crime
Glen Vendor Shot Dead, SVG’s 23rd Homicide of 2026
Sandre Matthias, 35, was gunned down near a Glen minimart on Friday night, the third killing recorded in the country this month as the homicide toll climbs again.
A 35-year-old vendor was shot and killed in the East St. George community of Glen on Friday night, the latest in a run of gun-related deaths that has pushed St. Vincent and the Grenadines toward another violent year. Police identified the victim as Sandre Matthias of Glen, who was fatally wounded by what the Royal Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force described as an unknown assailant.
In a press release issued Saturday, police said they received information of a shooting in Glen at about 8:15 p.m. on Friday, 10 July. According to the force, Matthias was shot and succumbed to his injuries, and was subsequently pronounced dead by a medical practitioner. Local reporting placed the scene near a minimart, where officers found the body of an adult male who was later identified as Matthias.
A post-mortem examination is expected to establish the exact cause of death, police said, adding that their investigation into the matter remains ongoing. No arrest has been announced, and police have not disclosed a motive.
Matthias’s death is the 23rd homicide recorded in St. Vincent and the Grenadines this year, and the third this month alone. Vincypowa News, citing iWitness News
A deadly stretch
The killing caps a grim ten days. It follows the shooting death of 49-year-old Gayron Jackson, who was shot multiple times on 1 July in Mt. Young, Georgetown, reportedly while heading into the mountains to buy coconuts, and the killing of Lida Lewis, an 84-year-old farmer strangled in Peruvian Vale on 2 July. Police have appealed for public help in both of those cases, which remain unsolved.
Three killings in July
- 1 July, Mt. Young, Georgetown: Gayron Jackson, 49, shot dead.
- 2 July, Peruvian Vale: Lida Lewis, 84, a farmer, strangled.
- 10 July, Glen: Sandre Matthias, 35, a vendor, shot dead.
The pace underscores a problem that has dogged St. Vincent and the Grenadines for years. The country recorded 40 homicides in 2025, down from 54 in 2024, a figure that translated to a rate above 50 per 100,000 residents, among the highest in the Caribbean and the wider hemisphere. At 23 killings by the middle of July, 2026 is running slightly ahead of last year’s pace. Firearms have been the weapon in the majority of these deaths, and authorities have repeatedly linked the violence to a small number of criminal groups and the regional drug trade.
For Glen, a quiet community on the outskirts of Kingstown, the shooting brings that national statistic to a single doorstep. Matthias, described by police simply as a vendor, becomes the latest name on a list that grows longer each year without a clear answer from the state on how to shorten it.
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The Royal Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force extended condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. Vincypowa News will update this report as the investigation develops.