Watchdog sleeps while master murdered

A watchdog remained asleep yesterday morning as his master was screaming at the top of his lungs while being murdered. Around 1am Keith “Simple” Noel, 39, was chopped across the right side of his jaw and then suffocated to death while asleep in his Regent Street, Belmont home. His dog “Jade” which slept throughout the incident, remained asleep when neighbours responded and even when the media and police came. According to a relative of Noel who lives nearby, “I was using the washroom upstairs when I heard shouts of ‘whu yuh doing here, get  outta here,” coming from Simple’s bedroom. “Then I heard a cuffing sound, followed by the sound of the thumping of  a body against a wall.” This was followed by his screams of ‘help, Raymond, help,’ calling out to his friend next door.

“Frightened, I ran nearby and started scratching a cutlass against a wall to scare them off. When we went into the house Noel lay dead with a gaping chop wound across his jaw and a pillow over his face. The house was not ransacked. “We saw signs where the killers came through a window and exited the back door. I believe Noel was ambushed while asleep and the killers fled when I began making noise,” the relative who now fears for his life explained. Relatives believe the killers were already in the house when Noel came in and went to bed, but became startled and fled when the relative raised an alarm and attracted neighbours preventing them from removing anything.

They also believe that it was more than one killer because Noel was a tall man and it would have taken more than one man to hold him down. The killers ran through a back door, jumped over wall and then through a track escaping into the St Barb’s, Laventille area. Residents expressed their concern about the murder of the man they considered an innocent and decent person. They however expressed more anger over the promise of the police to send a helicopter within 15 minutes of the murder to search for the killers and it was almost 12 hours later when Newsday was leaving the scene, and still the helicopter had not arrived. Noel who lived by himself was described as a cool and quiet man who did not smoke, drink or gamble and kept out of people’s business.

His life was described as one of home to work and vice versa. Police are still unclear as to the different stages before the murder and investigations are continuing. Noel’s death is murder number 137 for the year so far. Meanwhile, Morvant police are investigating the murder of Kieron Critchlow, murder number 136, who was shot dead on Wednesday. Critchlow, 19, of Red Hill, Morvant was shot to death by one of five men who called him outsided his house. According to reports around 11.45 am Critchlow was speaking to his grandmother when he heard his name called. He responded and then several shots were heard. He was found moments later in a pool of blood on the ground with five bullet wounds to his head, legs and arms. Cpl Mc Millan is continuing inquiries.