A tight-knit St Michael family is reeling from heartbreak after 40-year-old shopkeeper Richard Cab Haynes was gunned down outside his community shop Tuesday night, an incident that has left his loved ones shattered and a neighbourhood gripped by fear.
Haynes, a father, was shot multiple times around 10:05 p.m. at the small shop he operated at 1st Avenue Weeks Land, Goodland, just steps away from his family’s home, and later died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
As rain drizzled gently on the community on Wednesday and a faint rainbow stretched across the sky, his sister Crystal Haynes tilted her head upward.
“I think he is crying… has been crying all day,” she whispered, her voice heavy with grief. “Because he misses his children, misses us. I think he heard us calling out to him last night while he lay there and wanted to say one last thing… but couldn’t.”
Crystal, 37, had been resting inside when the gunfire shattered the quiet.
“I had just put down my phone and laid down to get some rest, and then I heard the gunshots. I was really scared,” she recalled.
“My sister ran out first. Then I got out of bed and we ran down to the shop… and I saw my brother lifeless on the ground. I was just screaming, calling out his name all the time,” she said, her voice fading into a sob.
In disbelief, she tried to speak to him. She called out to him, just to hear something, anything, one last time.
She told Barbados TODAY that their final exchange was that same morning.
“I said, ‘Cab, your light bill for the shop come,’ and he took it and went down. That was it.”
Haynes was more than a shopkeeper. To his family and community, he was a vibrant, fun-loving father, five of his children lived with him, including his youngest, a four-year-old.
“Every day, he’d walk down and shout through the window, ‘What y’all want to eat?’ And they’d be waiting, watching for him. He loved children. He had a great relationship with them.”
Neighbours also admired the bond. One woman said she often saw him chatting affectionately with the children through the window.
The shop operated by Richard “Cab” Haynes remained closed on Wednesday following his fatal shooting the night before. (SM)
“I feel so bad. I was sleeping and heard the gunshot. I jumped up and went to hide behind my wardrobe,” she said, visibly shaken.
The killing has torn through the family. Their mother, who has been a sight of grief, still lives in the same yard. All four siblings were raised there and remained close.
“They didn’t just take my brother,” Crystal said softly. “They took my best friend.”
The incident has caused her to join a growing chorus of grieving families and fearful residents nationwide pleading for peace.
“Please put down the guns,” she said. “People say it all the time… but it doesn’t seem they will be putting them down any time soon.”
Richard’s death brings the number of people killed in Barbados this year to 30, part of a troubling trend that has alarmed communities across the island.
At the time of the shooting, he had been at his shop, a popular hangout for neighbours who often gathered there to relax and socialise.
But on Wednesday, the doors were closed and the grounds were empty. The stillness bore quiet testament to the loss.
Police investigations are ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477, Police Emergency at 211, or the Black Rock Police Station at 417-7500/7501.
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