Police will boost armed patrols in George Town and West Bay districts following four incidents in four days involving firearms.

The killing of four-year-old Jeremiah Barnes at a West Bay gas station Monday night was one of three shootings Royal Cayman Islands Police believe had occurred that day.

Another shooting happened early Monday on School Road, and shell casings were found around the same time on Myles Lane in George Town. No one was hurt in those incidents.

The previous Friday, a man inside an Eastern Avenue barbershop was threatened with a handgun, but no shots were fired.

Police Commissioner David Baines said the public would notice heavily armed officers stationed at roadblocks around Grand Cayman in the coming days. Their purpose will not be traffic enforcement, Mr. Baines said.

“You will get caught up in increasing police activity both in West Bay and George Town,” Mr. Baines said. “Routine searches of vehicles will be taking place and I ask you not to be too alarmed when you see that those roadblocks are accompanied by armed officers, carrying fairly overt weaponry.”

Mr. Baines said the focus of the roadblocks would be to identify gang members and disrupt their travel and transport of weapons and drugs across the island.

Plans for the stepped up police presence were already well under way prior to Monday night’s tragic shooting in West Bay.

Chief Superintendent John Jones said on Monday that police had stepped up patrols throughout Grand Cayman and that increased numbers of armed officers would be deployed at strategic locations, including George Town, to ensure they could quickly respond to firearms incidents.

“Using our existing resources of trained officers, we’ll be stepping up patrols in specific areas, in what we call ‘hot spot’ areas. They will be in our armed response vehicles, officers on foot patrol will not be carrying firearms,” he said.

“We’ll be focusing on specific areas, obviously around Eastern Avenue and School Road where we’ve had previous incidents,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr. Baines said he was closing down all non-essential police office functions in order to put more cops on the streets.

Spent shell casings

About 1.15am on Monday morning, police responded to a report of shots being fired in School Road and, on arrival, discovered that a parked car had been hit by a bullet. During their search of the area, they recovered a number of spent cartridges nearby, and also in the Myles Lane area.

On Friday night, according to police, a gunman entered Mr. G’s Barber Shop on Eastern Avenue around 7.50pm on Friday night and threatened a man with the gun before running away.

Mr. Jones said there was no evidence or intelligence at this point to connect the incidents, but said due to their proximity to each other, it was possible they were linked.

Mr. Baines said there was also nothing linking the previous shootings to the killing of Jeremiah Barnes Monday night. In fact, he said it appeared to be separate West Bay and George Town gangs who were involved in different disputes.

Chief Superintendent Jones said the increasing use of firearms in Cayman was “completely unacceptable”.

He appealed to the public to come forward and help police with inquiries on these incidents and others about which witnesses have not contacted police.

“There is no doubt that the people involved in many of these incidents know who the perpetrators are, but, for whatever reason, they do not want to provide us with statements or tell us who was involved.

“This tit-for-tat must stop now or the consequences for the people involved, or innocent bystanders, could be fatal.”

Mr. Jones’ comments were made just hours before Jeremiah Barnes was shot to death.

“I regret to say we were only too prophetic when we said it would be not long before an innocent bystander (was killed)…I regret that had to be a four-year-old boy.”