Passenger shoots woman driver

Relatives remain baffled over a motive for the murder of Yvette Joseph, who lived at Community Street, Mt D’or. Joseph, police reported picked up four passengers ( three men and a woman) at the corner of Eastern Main Road and Mt D’or Road, Champs Fleurs, shortly before 11 am.

Two of the men dropped out, while the third asked to be taken to a house in Third Drive, Mt D’or Extension Road.

When they got to the address, the man paid the fare, got out and suddenly pulled out a gun. He shot Joseph three times in the head.

However, Joseph’s foot slipped down on to the accelerator and the car sped off, crashing into a wall.

The killer, walked through a nearby track and escaped. The frantic female passenger, seated in the back, called her friends who contacted the police.

When the police arrived, they found Joseph slumped across the front seat with her head hanging out the left window.

Her mother Veronica Edwards blamed jealousy for the killing. “Is jealous they jealous her because of her achievements. Yvette was a willing, loving person who never said an abusive word in her life.”

Joseph’s father Peter Baptiste was angry with the police, whom he felt did not move quickly enough to search the surroundings for the killer.

But police officers, the first at the scene had to wait two hours for the District Medical Officer and the Special Anti-Crime Unit, which provided dogs and a helicopter, before a search could begin. Tricia and Tia, Joseph’s daughters, had to be restrained when they arrived and learnt their mother had been killed.

Police said they had two theories about the murder — a robbery gone bad or a land dispute.

However Joseph’s husband Randolph said they were not involved in any land dispute. The shocked man, who learnt of her death while at his construction job in Santa Cruz, rolled in the dirt crying for justice.