Limer dies defending visitor

A 27-year-old man of Coral Gardens, Buccoo, Tobago became the island’s first murder victim for 2006 when he was fatally stabbed by another man at a popular liming spot in west Tobago around 2.30 am yesterday. A 37-year-old man has been held for questioning in connection with the incident. Henderson “Ranks” Joseph was liming at the Shade with a group of friends, including an English couple, when the incident occurred. According to eyewitnesses, the female visitor was being “harassed” by Joseph’s assailant and when he attempted to defend her, the man pulled out a knife and stabbed him in his chest. Joseph was said to have staggered a short distance away before he collapsed.

A suspect was quickly held by plain clothes police officers on the scene and the alleged murder weapon was seized. Joseph had succumbed to his injury by the time EHS officials arrived at the scene. His body was identified by his mother Jemma Joseph and was ordered removed to the Scarborough mortuary by DMO Dr Ocalli Fideli. Immediately after the incident, management ordered that the music be turned off and patrons were ushered off the compound. The victim’s mother struggled yesterday to come to terms with his death. “It could have been anybody’s number but it was just Henderson’s unlucky timing. For you to do that in that kind of way is really wicked,” she said. Joseph, mother of seven children of which Henderson was the fifth, said she last saw him on Friday evening when he waved to her from a passing taxi in the Buccoo area. She said she did not know it would have been his final good-bye to her.

She said Henderson, an electrician, recently returned from a brief stay in England and was supposed to start a new job tomorrow. “It was just Wednesday that I told him, ‘I am a single mother and I have never spoken to you about this world, about how a man should live and I think that it was time I should talk to you,’ but I didn’t know this is how it would have ended,” the grieving woman said. A post mortem is scheduled to be conducted today while the 37-year-old suspect is due to appear in court tomorrow. Coincidentally, the island’s last murder for 2005 occurred within close proximity of the liming spot where Joseph was killed. The body of 36-year-old Dave Nelson of Les Coteaux was found lying face down on a rock by two joggers around 6.30 am on December 3. Pieces of broken glass were found around the body. Officers attached to the Crown Point Police Station are investigating both incidents.