The close-knit community of Green Point, St Philip on Friday awoke to the dreadful screams of Wendy Greenidge, whose daughter, Tanya Greenidge was killed in what is believed to have been a domestic dispute.
Just after 7:30 a.m., word initially spread of a double homicide at the St Philip home, but police Public Relations Officer (PRO) Acting Inspector Rodney Inniss revealed that one person – a male, was unresponsive at the scene, but was later confirmed alive.
However, Tanya, a 42-year-old optometrist who lived at the sprawling two-storey house where the incident occurred, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her cause of death has not been revealed, but police have launched a homicide investigation into the incident.
Barbados TODAY has also confirmed that the slain woman is the daughter of Neval Greenidge, Barbados’ Consul General stationed in Miami, Florida and a former policeman in Barbados.
Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, the community was swarming with police. Efforts to reach family members proved futile, as the entire area was cordoned off, but a forensics team could be seen from a distance combing the property for clues.
As news of the incident made its way around the upscaled community, teary-eyed residents expressed frustration and sorrow at the “senseless” and “unnecessary” act that left a six-year-old boy motherless.
“When I heard Wendy [Tanya’s mother] screaming, I thought perhaps my dog had escaped and wandered down there and that is why she was screaming. So I shouted to tell him to come back home, not knowing that such a horrible incident was occurring,” a next-door neighbour recalled.
Admitting that she knew very little about what occurred, the resident recalled seeing an unconscious man being carried out on a stretcher from the home before she returned to her residence.
“People have to learn to be able to take on certain things without reacting in this way. There is no good reason why a life had to be lost today. It is so sad that he took that girl from her child. It is so sad,” she repeated mournfully.
Efforts to reach the victim’s father were unsuccessful, but residents indicated that as far as they knew, the consul general was close to his daughter. The senior Greenidge as a former member of the Royal Barbados Police Force, built a reputation as a respected crime fighter before moving into the financial services field and later the diplomatic corps.
Meanwhile, Eustace Greenidge, (not related to the victim’s family) who has been living in Green Point for over 20 years, was extremely annoyed about the circumstances under which his neighbor was killed.
The longtime electrician was adamant that there was “no trouble” in the community, and today’s events had shaken the community leaving many in shock.
“People are traumatized because this is something that we are not familiar with. The most trouble we get out here is airplanes passing. But normally up here is very quiet and peaceful,” Greenidge told Barbados TODAY.
“The person who did that must have been a lunatic. I have never seen him around here, but one or two of the neighbours said that they saw him once or twice. It seems he wasn’t a person who really came around.”
He then lamented: “She was a very nice and very friendly person, and it is really annoying to see that something like this could happen just like that. In my opinion, it was totally uncalled for and it would seem to me some like a relationship gone bad. If that was the case, I think men have to realize that if a woman doesn’t like you, she doesn’t like you, and the buck ends there
“You haven’t created anyone and it shouldn’t be your choice to decide who should live and who should die,” he declared.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
