Little Girl from London Shot and Killed During Her Vacation in Jamaica

Just in case you were skipping merrily along through the internets this Sunday afternoon, here’s something that will deflate your pleasant thought bubble: an eight-year-old girl from London vacationing with her family in Jamaica, was shot and killed after an argument broke out in a rural convenience store.

The BBC reports that Imani Green had been staying with relatives in a rural town called Duncans, which sits placidly on Jamaica’s north coast, and, apparently, is a stranger to violent crime (during a live radio report, the BBC’s Nick Davis described Duncans as “sleepy and backwater,” noting that “crime is pretty much unheard of” in the local community). She had arrived in the town with her mother and sister on Dec. 27, and had been set to return to her home in South London by the end of January. On Friday, however, Green was inside a store owned by her cousin (a Duncans resident) when a man entered and an argument ensued. Police say that the man then opened fire, wounding three people in the store, including Green, who died of her injuries on the way to the hospital. A theory is floating around that the shooting was a reprisal for an earlier attack, though details about just how this blood feud actually played out are, as of yet, scarce.