KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica and West Indies cricket fraternity was Friday plunged into mourning after West Indies Under-19s manager, Gibbs Williams, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the parking lot of a medical facility in Portmore.
Late West Indies Under-19 manager, Gibbs Williams.The 55-year-old was a member of the management team of the regional squad which toured Sri Lanka last month, and also managed the Jamaica side which swept both titles in the Cricket West Indies Under-19 Championship last July in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Media reports here said Williams was returning to his car around midday after attending the Portmore Hospital Complex in the parish of St Catherine on Jamaica’s southeastern coast, when he was shot multiple times.
He was subsequently rushed to the nearby Spanish Town Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
St Catherine police authorities said they had “ruled out robbery as a motive” and were following “strong leads”.
Williams’s murder triggered an outpouring of tributes, led by cricket’s regional governing body CWI which lamented the “sudden and tragic passing” of the GC Foster College of Physical Education & Sport vice principal.
“I share the sorrow of the entire cricket fraternity in the West Indies on the sudden and tragic passing of our men’s Under-19 team manager, Mr. Gibbs Williams,” said CWI president, Dr Kishore Shallow.
“My first interaction with Gibbs was around 2002 when he was the fitness trainer for the first-ever UWI team in the Red Stripe Bowl West Indies One Day tournament.
“Along his path, he would have positively impacted many young people across the Caribbean.
“On behalf of Cricket West Indies, my profound condolences to his family and other loved ones. Rest in eternal peace, ‘Gibbo’”
Regional players union, WIPA, praised Williams as a “good and decent human being.”
“It is with great sorrow that we have learnt of the passing of Gibbs Williams,” said WIPA president, Wavell Hinds.
“Mr. Williams has given stellar service to his family, to clubs and schools in Jamaica, and to Jamaica and West Indies cricket.
“He was a good and decent human being, and a gentleman at heart. He will be missed, but his legacy will certainly live on.”
Meanwhile, the Jamaica Cricket Association spoke of its “unspeakable sorrow”, while describing Williams as a “passionate, enthusiastic and a tireless servant of cricket.”
Terrence Corke, who served as head coach in Jamaica’s Under-19 management unit alongside Williams, said his colleague had been a “very jovial person” but was also “serious about his work.”
“He was my Under-19 manager for the last three years. He was also a strength and conditioning trainer and a Level Three coach, so I got maximum help from Gibbo,” Corke told the Observer newspaper here.
“I’ve told people that I’m the luckiest coach in Jamaica because I get a one-in-three. He was a great manager, a brilliant [trainer] and a very good Level Three coach… this is like a bad dream.”
Education Minister Fayval Williams weighed in on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), saying: “News of the shooting death of VP Gibbs Williams has left all of us stunned…shocked beyond words! We mourn with the family and the school community.”
