Two shot dead, one wounded

EIGHT days after two expelled members of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen went on a radio station and criticised their former leader, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, one of them was fatally shot in an incident that left another man wounded and a woman dead. The shooting incident occurred around 11.30pm on the Movie Towne compound, Invaders Bay, Audrey Jeffers Highway. Homicide sources said the deaths have pushed this year’s murder toll to an even 100. But in an interview yesterday, Bakr immediately denied knowledge of Wednesday night’s bloody attack, which left expelled Muslimeen Lincoln Alexis, aka Salim Rashid and Jillia Bowen, 31, of Nelson Street dead. Bowen’s common-law-husband and Jamaat member, Clive “Wolfie” Lewis, aka Adil Ghani, 36, was also wounded in the attack.  Ghani was one of the 114 Jamaat members involved in the July 27, 1990 attempted coup. “The one who is being questioned knows no more than the questioner.  Whatever I know, you know.  I know nothing.  Life and death is in the hands of the Allah.  Whatever you sow you reap,” Bakr said. Bowen died on the spot, while Alexis, who is from Bagatelle, Diego Martin, expired in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the city hospital, shortly after 5pm yesterday. Alexis’ death came a few minutes after a confrontation between police and some members of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen at the hospital.
   
The confrontation, according to the police, came about after a female relative of Alexis was denied access.  The relative reportedly wanted to go into the ICU, but because two relatives are allowed at a time, this was not allowed. There was a face-off, that was eventually quelled, police said when officers from the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) as well as members of the Belmont Police Station responded. Alexis had undergone emergency surgery that ended just after noon yesterday.  He was shot in the lower portion of his body about five times. An artery in one of his legs had been severed and a hospital source said he received several pints of blood. Alexis had survived a gun attack just over a month ago, when on May 2, he, together with expelled Jamaat member Ken Gonzales, aka Kazim Rashid, were shot at, while Gonzales was driving in the vicinity of Matura and Patna Streets, St James. Police had  described that gun attack as an attempted assassination. Seven days after that gun attack, on May 9, Alexis, along with Gonzales and Nigel Pemberton, aka Zaki Aubiah were expelled from the Jamaat al Muslimeen organisation. In Wednesday night’s gun attack, police sources said Bowen, Lewis and Alexis were seated on a black iron bench between the Just CD and The Bulkbarn stores, located on the compound of Movie Towne.

The three were in conversation when a heavily-tinted white B14 Sentra vehicle carrying about four male occupants pulled alongside. Believing that the three were being monitored closely on Wednesday night, police said the person on the left front passenger seat and another person on the left back seat wound down their respective windows a few inches, then off-loaded several shots from an UZI sub-machine gun and a 9mm pistol. When the smoke was cleared, police said Alexis was found lying in a pool of blood with bullet wounds to his lower body on the bench. Lewis, also was in a pool of blood.  Bowen, a supervisor at Island Club Casino, Grand Bazaar, died as a result of shock and haemorrhage due to a gunshot wound to the head. A report was made and a party of officers headed by acting Sr Supt Stephen Quashie and including ASP Craig, Insp Narcis Cadette, Sgts Nandram Moonilal and Hosein visited the scene and conducted investigations. Both Lewis and Alexis were rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital via an Emergency Health Services (EHS) ambulance. Police sources said Lewis told them that he and Bowen had just finished watching a movie, when they saw Alexis, whom they started talking to. On seeing Alexis, Lewis noticed a creamish car suddenly pull up and stop on the Audrey Jeffers Highway.

However, police said Lewis told them that another white car came from an easterly direction from inside the Movie Towne Car Park and stopped in front of them and fired shots.  Police suspect that there was communication within both vehicles and don’t believe Bowen was a target. They say Wednesday night’s gun attack is related to a fight for turf over various programmes and that they are dealing with a totally organised underworld which seems to know the operation of the police service quite well. “When we (the police) are out, they are in.  When we are in they are out and this is something to watch,” a senior police officer said. At the Forensic Science Centre yesterday, Bowen’s father, Stephen Lau Quan said his daughter was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. “She was just an innocent bystander,” Quan, 57, said.  The father of two added that his daughter was not a member of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, but a Seventh Day Adventist who hated the Mosque. However, Kala Akiibua, the man in charge of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen’s Social and Welfare Department said he saw Bowen at the Jamaat compound on several occasions, in company with Lewis, with whom she has a seven-month-old daughter.  She also has a son, aged seven. Quan said yesterday that Lewis called Bowen’s mother, Virginia Bowen, with whom the dead woman and Lewis lived to inform her of her daughter’s death. From inside her husband’s yellow-band maxi taxi, Virginia told Newsday that she spoke to her daughter around 8pm Wednesday.  She said her daughter told her she was going to see a movie to relax since she had a computer exam earlier in the day at Delta Soft in Maraval. “She just went there to relax,” Virginia said, pointing out that her daughter was a good mother, who worked hard to mind her two children.  Virginia also said that she did not know her son-in-law was a member of the Jamaat.

Commenting on the Movie Towne incident, Dereck Chin, chairman of the Multi Cinemas Limited, said they were trying extremely hard to make the place safe, but this appeared to be a difficult task. Chin said the shooting appears to be gang-related, and hoped that it never happens again.  He said it was a good thing that there were not many people around at the time. The businessman added that authorities need to do something quickly or else the country will not be attractive to investors. Chin said he believed Bowen and Lewis went to see “The Holes” movie which starred Sigourney Weaver and John Voight.  He added that the couple then played Arcade Games, before going outside. Chin said they were in Movie Towne for several hours. On May 27, Alexis and Zaki Aubidah were guests on a radio station, and after heated arguments between them and Bakr, the police were called out. Task Force officers said they had received a tip-off that the two ex-Muslimeen may have had firearms and ammunition in their vehicles and there were fears that Bakr would have despatched some of his followers to talk to the two men after the programme. The fears turned out to be unfounded, however. Aubidah had said because of certain statements made by Bakr, the police now think that they were “criminals and kidnappers”.  He also said that the young Muslims were being “misled by the leaders” of Islam, namely Bakr. When Bakr went public with the expulsion of the three on May 14, he told Newsday then that the three senior Jamaat members were expelled following months of investigations. Bakr said none of the three would enjoy the organisation’s support or protection and warned that anyone in the organisation who associated with the expelled trio would also face expulsion. No arrests had been made up to late evening and Sgt Moonilal of the St James Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is continuing investigations.