St Thomas pensioner slashed to death

Broken glass, blood stains and tight lips summed up the scene at Walkes Spring, St Thomas, after the community was rocked by a vicious cutlass attack that robbed it of one of its elderly men – the nation’s 10th murder for the year.

The scene also bore witness to the pandemonium that broke out when Douglas Barker, 74, was attacked in the dead of night by a man who eyewitnesses said is a well-known resident.

At the house Barker shared with his daughter, Cathyann Barker, the mood was sombre as gruesome reminders of the pensioner’s death lingered.

Neighbours at the home of Douglas Barker were offering comfort to his grieving family.

According to reports, a man approached Barker’s home around 11:00 last night in a fit of rage and began banging on windows and doors, eventually breaking in. After inflicting significant damage to the house, he unleashed a brutal attack on the elderly man.

“He [Barker] couldn’t survive that attack. He was too badly slashed,” recalled one eyewitness, as a team of cleaners had begun to cleanse the house of the scent and sight of blood.

Shaken relatives declined comment, but neighbours told Barbados TODAY they were shocked by the attack as Barker was an extremely reserved man.

“He just used to go town early on mornings and then he used to be on that 12 o’clock [afternoon] bus coming home, if they had one. He would walk and come up the gap and he would speak and everything and you wouldn’t see him after that,” said a middle-aged woman of Barker, a Walkes Spring resident for as long as she could remember.

In a statement, police revealed that a man had been taken into custody in connection with last night’s fatal attack.