A British estate manager has been shot dead and his photographer friend left injured after masked gunmen opened fire at a bar in St Lucia, where both men lived.
Donnie McKinnon was killed in the alleged attack in the town of Soufriere yesterday afternoon. His friend Peter Jackson, a 72-year-old photographer from Accrington, was injured.
According to a local source, the victims were on the balcony of Steve’s Bar on Market Road when the masked gunmen approached and fired shots.Scottish Mr McKinnon was the manager of the Soufriere Estate on the island, a 2,000 acre former working plantation.
He is a well-known community activist and former director of the Soufriere Regional Development Foundation.
Both men are citizens of the island, with one person telling St Lucia Times: ‘Everyone knew them. They were community people. This is sad.’
St Lucia, which has a population of less than 200,000, has recorded 67 homicides this year.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are urgently seeking more information from the government in St Lucia about an incident which took place yesterday.’ A spokesman from the local council said: ‘The authorities are investigating a shooting incident which took place in Soufriere on Saturday afternoon which left one man dead and another nursing injuries at the hospital.’
A police spokesman said: ‘We are looking into this shooting which we were called to during the course of today.
‘We are speaking to people who were been present and may have seen something.
‘We will leave no stone unturned as we investigate this fully. We will be releasing a statement shortly.’
Mr McKinnon was the general manager at Marcliffe Hotel and Spa in Aberdeen between 2007 and 2009.
