A 54-year-old man has been found dead with apparent gunshot wounds inside a van at Limestone Bay.
The deceased has been identified as Arnold Hunt of West End, according to a press release from the Royal Anguilla Police Force.
A member of the public discovered his body at about 8am on 31 March and made a report to the Joint Emergency Services Control Room.
On arrival, police officers observed that Hunt appeared lifeless and he was pronounced dead on the scene. A postmortem has been ordered to determine the cause of death.
“Detectives remain actively engaged in the investigation. The RAPF urges anyone with information regarding this incident to come forward,” the press release said.
Police told Anguilla Focus that the death is being treated as a homicide, marking the fifth in Anguilla since the start of 2025.
On the evening of Friday, 7 February, 69-year-old Carl Stephen Carter was found with a fatal gunshot wound to his head in his home in The Farrington.
Ten days later on Monday, 17 February, Omari Roberts, a 29-year-old visitor from the British Virgin Islands, was pronounced dead after a shooting in Hillside Bar and Grill in South Hill around midnight.
Shomari Fahie, 37, was pronounced dead in Princess Alexandra Hospital after being shot at The Valley food court, also known as The Strip, in the early hours of Saturday, 8 March.
Commissioner of Police Robert Clark has also reclassified the investigation into the disappearance of 27-year-old Teric Glenston Hickson on 4 January as murder.
‘Extremely concerned’
In a government press conference on 31 March, Premier Cora Richardson-Hodge extended condolences to Hunt’s family, friends and loved ones.
“Let me put on the record that this government is extremely concerned with respect to the gun violence that exists in our community,” she said.
“It’s our intent to deal with the matter by ways of looking at the certain circumstances that give rise to gun violence, looking at the issues that exist in our community, and finding ways to be able to address this scourge.”
She stressed that gun violence is not only happening in Anguilla – but also in the United States and other parts of the world.
“But we live here, we live in Anguilla, and we are concerned about what happens in Anguilla,” she said.
The premier urged residents to remain supportive of one another and do their part to help keep the island’s children on the right path.
“There are a number of other factors that we’ll be looking at, and we will come to you, the people of Anguilla, once we have been able to take a hold of the situation,” she said.
Six homicides were recorded in 2024, with charges brought in just one of those cases. Five homicides were recorded in 2023, again with charges brought in just one case.
Anyone with information on any criminal activity in Anguilla can call (264) 497-2333 or 497-5333, or leave an anonymous message, video or photo at www.gov.ai/911
Information from the website is stored in a secure location in California and access to it is tightly controlled.
