U.S. Envoy Slain in Grenada Rampage

A high-ranking police official went on a shooting rampage at police headquarters here Wednesday morning, killing Grenada’s acting commissioner and a U.S. diplomat from Southern California and wounding two high-ranking officers before he was killed by police.

State Department officials in Washington said the slain diplomat, John Angelo Butler, 33, was killed while trying to subdue the gunman, identified as Grafton Bascombe. Butler was the political officer at the U.S. Embassy in St. George’s, the capital of this Caribbean island nation.

Officials in Grenada said the target of the attack appeared to be Grenada’s acting police commissioner, Cosmus Raymond, but that the motive was unknown.

Daniel Searles, the acting police superintendent, and Collis Barrow, the deputy police commissioner, were wounded but listed in stable condition.

Police said Bascombe was a police officer from the island of St. Vincent who had been on loan to the Grenadian police force.

According to Grenada officials, Bascombe had recently been questioned about alleged financial improprieties, but it was not clear if the shooting was linked to the interrogation.

Police said Bascombe fled to a nearby building after the shooting but was killed after a struggle. The circumstances of his death were not clear.

Albert Xavier, an adviser to Grenada’s Prime Minister Herbert Blaize, said Bascombe’s return to St. Vincent was delayed because he was in charge of funds made available for joint military exercises with the United States and was to have given an accounting to Raymond on Wednesday.

Xavier said Bascombe entered Raymond’s office and fired two shots from a .45-caliber revolver, hitting the commissioner in the head and stomach and killing him.

Bascombe then walked into Barrow’s office next door, where U.S. Embassy and police officials were meeting.

“Butler made a move to subdue the assailant, who then shot Mr. Butler point-blank before fleeing the room. Mr. Butler apparently was killed instantly,” Harter said.

Butler was assigned to Grenada as political officer in the summer of 1988. He joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and previously served in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, Harter said. A native of Twentynine Palms, Butler was a graduate of the University of San Diego and held a graduate degree from San Diego State. He leaves his wife and a stepchild, both of whom are in Grenada.