Barbados police are offering a $10,000 reward to arrest the man who violently attacked two Ottawa women on an isolated beach two weeks ago, leaving one with massive brain injuries.
Commissioner Darwin Dottin of the Royal Barbados Police Force made the announcement on Friday, according to local reports. He also promised more patrols and surveillance cameras in high-risk areas, co-ordinated by a command centre, and a special tourism police unit.
The country's minister of tourism also pledged temporary police kiosks and de-bushing along Long Beach, where Terry Schwarzfeld and her daughter-in-law Luana Cotsman were approached by a would-be robber on Feb. 28.
When they pleaded that they had nothing of value, the man struck the back of Schwarzfeld's head with a large piece of wood, causing swelling of the brain.
Schwarzfeld, 60, was heavily sedated in Barbadian hospital to reduce the swelling and internal bleeding before returning to Ottawa. She has signs of brain damage and may never recover, according to her husband of 37 years, Steve Cotsman.
"We have several senior detectives working on this matter, trying to resolve it," Dottin said, according to Nation News.
The commissioner added that only 242 crimes were reported last year by the island's 1.2 million visitors.
