Maxi taxi tout shot dead outside city school

A MAXI taxi tout was yesterday shot and killed outside the Port-of-Spain Rosary Boys RC School in what police suspect as the result of an incident Wednesday night in which a woman was beaten in the Belmont district.

The dead man has been identified as Dion Manson, 28, aka Shabazz, of Building A-108 Charford Courts, Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain. Another man, who police identified as Justin Jobe of Belle Eau Road, Belmont, is believed to have been shot by the same suspect, police said.  Jobe is warded in satisfactory condition at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Reports are that around 4.30pm yesterday, Manson, father of one four-year-old son, Dishawn, was on Charlotte Street in the vicinity of the Rosary Boys RC School, when a white vehicle, in which there were three male occupants, pulled up alongside him and two shots were heard.

An eyewitness, who was washing a vehicle at the time, told police that the white vehicle, believed to be a new model Sunny, came from Observatory Street, turned into the nearby gas station, and made a slight turn onto Charlotte Street. The 45-year-old man said one of the male occupants in the front seat, fired two shots at Manson.  He said the vehicle then passed a line of cars and turned up the East Dry River bridge and escaped. After, the eyewitness said, Manson was seen lying on the ground in a pool of blood, nursing gunshot wounds to his back.  He added that a nearby vendor placed Manson into a maxi taxi which took him to the city hospital, where Manson was pronounced dead on arrival. “He was a real cool person,” the eyewitness told Newsday.  The man told police that the shooting stemmed from an incident Wednesday night when the suspect’s girlfriend was beaten up by a group of men.

At Manson’s home yesterday, his 53-year-old mother, Josephine Manson, said her son had just left home to go and hustle to get milk for his son.  The mother of eight also said that her son had just helped an elderly woman with a bag. “He was no bandit and no drug lord.  He was loved by all the people in the yard.  He disrepected no one,” the woman said.  She added that he worked with the URP and City Council. Josephine said she learned of her son’s death when a neighbour shouted: “Shabazz just pick up two.”  His sister, Minisha said the most her brother would do is gamble, curse and tout to make sure his son had food. Another relative said children from the Rosary Boys school said they heard two gunshots, and that teachers told them not to look outside. Relatives were also hoping that the suspect is picked up shortly, since they said he is the holder of a United States visa and can flee the country. A party of officers from the Belmont Criminal Investi-gations Department (CID), under acting Insp Glen Sylvester visited the scene and are continuing investigations.