Cops hunt two gunmen

ARHONA ALEXANDER, the mother of the country’s 177th murder victim Bobby Bowen, said Sunday that she and others had pleaded with Bobby to desist from delivering gas in Laventille, but he refused to heed their advice saying that he had a duty to provide gas for the people in that area.

Grieving relatives claimed that Bobby, 28, a salesman with Ramco Gas, had developed a close relationship with several persons in Laventille, and was never fearful of being killed. Around 4 pm on Saturday, he was driving a Ramco truck into Second Street off Laventille Road, when two men armed with guns attempted to rob him. Bowen resisted and was shot twice in the abdomen. He alighted from the truck and ran a short distance away before he collapsed. At his Cunapo Village, Tumpuna Road, Arima home Sunday, relatives of the dead man were building a bamboo tent to hold a wake. They described Bobby as a friendly person who was never unwilling to give his last dollar to anyone in need. His sisters and mother said that he was advised to stop delivering gas in Laventille, but Bobby felt that his life was never in danger. They said Bobby would be alive had he heeded their warning. They said the last time they saw Bobby alive was on Saturday morning when he left home for work. They said that he was his normal cheerful self. They had no idea then that it was the last time they would see him alive.

Bobby was involved in an altercation with a man 11 months ago in which he was stabbed and one of his lungs was punctured. He survived that attack and the matter was due to be heard in court in January next year. Relatives have not linked his death to that case and feel that he was an innocent victim in a robbery attempt. Police investigators told Newsday that several salesmen who carry out deliveries in Laventille do so with more than one armed security guard through fear of being robbed and shot. Residents of Laventille said that despite the presence of the joint police/army Inter Agency Task Force people continue to be killed or shot. They expressed no confidence in the existing anti-crime plan. Senior officers admitted that the situation has reached out of control in Laventille, and a new strategy to deal with the crime situation there is needed. Officers of the Besson Street Police Station also admitted that they are helpless in dealing with the number of murders in that district.