Ex-prisoner gunned down

Camara Ray, Bruce’s sister, said yesterday she spent Monday afternoon with him, as he had taken the day off from work as a labourer in Diego Martin, to conduct business at a bank.

“Obataiye wanted to take his niece out for the evening but I told him she had to take a bath,” Ray said.

Ray said Bruce ate some food and played with his niece before he went to the bank. It was the last time she saw her brother. She later got the news that he had been shot and killed.

Police report stated that residents heard an explosion at about 1.30 am yesterday and notified the E999 Rapid Response Unit. While waiting for the police, residents found Bruce’s body at the western side of a building on Heriondale Street. He was shot in the back and knee.

Diane Pierre, Bruce’s mother, said she left everything in the hands of Jesus. Bruce was her only son. She has five daughters.

Pierre stoutly denied her son’s death had anything to do with his time in prison on a sentence for having sex with a minor. She insists he was framed in that case.

“My son was not involved in anything wrong, and he was given a frame case,” said Pierre.

When E999 got the call, a team of officers from Morvant Police Station and the Homicide Bureau of Investigations responded.

A district medical officer examined Bruce before ordering his body be taken to the Forensic Science Centre, St James, where an autopsy was done yesterday. The result: Bruce died from haemorrhaging consistent with gun shot wounds.

No suspect has been held. Homicide is continuing the investigation.