Murder in Princes Town

A 52-YEAR-OLD man, described by police as a “notorious drug character” in San Fernando, was kidnapped and stabbed to death, and his body dumped on a canefield road near Princes Town on Wednesday night. Police believe that the murder of Frederick Brown, alias “Rap” of St Joseph Street, resulted from a drug deal that went sour. His murder brought the total to 259 for the year. When police pulled the files on Brown yesterday, they discovered that he had been charged with the murder of  his wife in 1989. He was listed as a police witness in the 1985 charge, filed against former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, to allegedly pervert the course of justice. Maharaj was discharged in the magistrates’ court of that charge.

Police said yesterday that Brown was one of the main contenders in the drug trafficking trade and had several such matters pending in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court. He was discharged by a magistrate following the preliminary inquiry in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court into his wife’s death. Police investigators said yesterday that Brown was at his usual “liming spot” at Upper Hillside, San Fernando, around 8.15 pm, when a car pulled up in front of him and three men came out, one armed with a gun. A report stated that one of the men pointed a gun at Brown while the other bundled him into the car. Police said yesterday that the men drove to the M1 Ring Road, which leads to the Naparima Mayaro Road in Princes Town, where they stabbed Brown in the head, back and leg. They then threw him out of the vehicle on a lonely canefield side road.

Police believe Brown crawled  onto the M1 road, where he was spotted by a passer by who called the police. A police party headed by Sgt Errol Ramdath and acting Sgt Nazoor Hosein responded to the call and found a bloodied Brown lying on the roadside. He was conscious. Police said Brown latter related how he was kidnapped and stabbed, but according to the report, Brown was unable to identify his killers. He was rushed to the nearby Princes Town Hospital by an EHS ambulance, where he succumbed to the stab wounds and died. When Newsday visited his San Fernando home yesterday, Brown’s common-law-wife, Jacqueline Carter, 43, had gone to the Forensic Science Centre in St James to identify his body. The couple has two children. Most of Brown’s neighbours refused to comment about his life. One elderly resident quipped, “If you live by the gun you shall die by it.” Supt Joseph Nathaniel, head of the South-Eastern Police Division, is heading investigations.