Gregory Linton, a former CARDI envoy in St. Vincent, is the second Dominican diplomat to be assassinated on the Southern Caribbean island, 33 years after Fanny Darroux was assassinated.
In the early hours of June 19, 2023, Linton’s decomposing body was discovered in the passenger seat of a blue Toyota Hilux with a CD (Certified Diplomat) license plate, CD67, parked outside the Kingstown Preparatory School.
On October 18, 1990, Darroux, an OECS fisheries official, was assassinated. Douglas Hamlett was found guilty and sentenced to death for her murder. Appeals were denied, and he was executed by hanging in 1995.
Linton’s murder investigation is still ongoing. A man who was apprehended has been released while police continue to search for his missing gun, which they believe was used in his assassination. Linton was killed by a single gunshot wound to the right side of his head.
Linton’s death has not caused the anger as Fanny Darroux’s murder did in 1990. Dominicans reacted to her murder with fury, filled with threats against Vincentians.
The intensity of the ‘hate’ became obvious when that person—a Vincentian—was advised to cancel an official ‘country visit’ to Dominica, which had been organized weeks previously and was scheduled for that period.
CARDI revealed in a lengthy press release that Gregory Linton’s death was a “unbelievable shock.”
Dominica’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries expressed condolences on Linton’s death; as of press time, neither the local agriculture ministry nor the government of St. Vincent had made any public statements on the diplomat’s assassination.
