U.S. Envoy 1 of 3 Victims of Shoot-Out in Grenada

A former police official opened fire in a police station today and killed the U.S. Embassy’s political officer and Grenada’s acting police commissioner, officials said.

The State Department in Washington said the gunman, a former assistant police commissioner who was not identified, was killed by other law officers after the shooting.

Deputy Prime Minister Ben Jones said the attack occurred at about 11:30 a.m. at Fort George, the police headquarters.

He said John Butler, the U.S. Embassy’s political officer, and acting Police Commissioner Cosmos Raymond were killed.

Daniel Searles, the acting superintendent of police and Collis Barrow, the deputy police commissioner, were wounded in the attack and taken to St. George’s General Hospital, the government official said. Both were listed in stable condition.

Jones gave no indication of the motive for the shootings.

A secretary at the U.S. Embassy said no information was immediately available.

State Department press officer Dennis Harter confirmed that a U.S. diplomat was shot and killed, but he declined to identify the man as Butler pending notification of relatives.

Harter said the officer was on routine business in connection with a recently completed joint military exercise involving U.S., Grenadan and other eastern Caribbean military and police forces.

“We have no indication that our embassy officer was a deliberate target of this crime,” Harter said.

“Our information is that a former assistant police commissioner carried out this murder after first killing Grenadan Police Commissioner Raymond. Immediately thereafter, the perpetrator was himself apprehended and killed.”

Grenada is an island of about 100,000 people in the Caribbean.

In October, 1983, U.S. Marines and paratroopers, along with a small Caribbean force, invaded the island and toppled a Marxist junta that had seized power.