Man gunned down at birthday lime

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

A cel­e­bra­tion of life turned in­to death on Thurs­day night, af­ter a 29-year-old man was mur­dered dur­ing a birth­day lime in Pa­tience Hill, To­ba­go.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Kurt Bovell, of Pa­tience Hill, was hang­ing out with friends un­der a shed around 10.35 pm when a gun­man ap­proached the group.

The un­masked as­sailant shot Bovell be­fore fir­ing sev­er­al more times as the crowd scam­pered for safe­ty. The gun­man then ap­proached Bovell and shot him sev­er­al times in the head.

The killer still had time to com­mit a rob­bery, as he snatched the chain off some­one’s neck be­fore es­cap­ing.

The DMO ar­rived at the scene and pro­nounced Bovell dead.

At Pa­tience Hill yes­ter­day, blood could still be seen in a pool of wa­ter where the group was lim­ing.

Res­i­dent Jody Melville Nim­blett, who lives near where the mur­der hap­pened, said the in­ci­dent had left her trau­ma­tised. She said she had been try­ing to wash away blood the en­tire morn­ing and was still in shock.

“He was just ly­ing on the floor for hours be­fore they move him. It was ex­e­cu­tion style,” she said.

She said Bovell and oth­er young men of­ten lime out­side their home and her moth­er would cook for them. She de­scribed Bovell as a close friend of the fam­i­ly and said he was a very nice and re­spect­ful per­son. How­ev­er, she said they knew he lived a dou­ble life and had gone to prison for a rob­bery.

“Whole night I stay up ask­ing what Kurt could do for some­body to come and do this.”

Nonethe­less, she said, “No­body de­serves to die like that.”

She said his moth­er, Beryl Bovell, would call them reg­u­lar­ly and tell them to make sure he did not get in­to trou­ble.

“She re­al­ly tried her best. She tried to save him, but you have no choice about the path they choose.”

Asked if she felt un­safe in her com­mu­ni­ty, Melville Nim­blett shook her head.

“No, I still feel safe. I on­ly feel un­safe around peo­ple you can’t trust. They tar­get­ed him. They ain’t look for chest or foot. They look for his head. I would have felt un­safe if 15 peo­ple get shoot, but it is just one per­son they came for.”

She urged young men in the com­mu­ni­ty to use the in­ci­dent as a wake-up call.

“He is an ex­am­ple to stop liv­ing dou­ble life. Live truth­ful­ly and don’t dis­tress any­one.”

She said peo­ple in Pa­tience Hill, es­pe­cial­ly youths, feel ne­glect­ed by the au­thor­i­ties. She said the area is la­belled a hotspot, but she sees it dif­fer­ent­ly.

“They say here is a bad area —no, no, no. Here is love, but it’s just some peo­ple that come around here. Most young boys here just need love and guid­ance.”

Elec­toral rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nigel Taitt told Guardian Me­dia he knows the Bovell fam­i­ly and called the de­ceased’s moth­er yes­ter­day morn­ing to ex­press his con­do­lences. Taitt said he has spo­ken with po­lice and was trou­bled by the shoot­ing.

“I am con­cerned by the amount of vi­o­lence that is tak­ing place in my com­mu­ni­ty and To­ba­go in gen­er­al, es­pe­cial­ly when it is gun-re­lat­ed. So many in­no­cent per­sons could have been killed or even in­jured. It is some­thing very wor­ry­ing.”

Snr Supt Rod­hill Kirk re­vealed the Homi­cide Bu­reau is in­ves­ti­gat­ing cer­tain leads, but de­clined to say it was linked to gang ac­tiv­i­ty.

Asked if the Pa­tience Hill area is a hotspot, Kirk said no, but “there is a lot if un­want­ed lim­ing in the area.”

He claimed that when po­lice con­duct op­er­a­tions in the com­mu­ni­ty, small busi­ness­es com­plain they are chas­ing away their cus­tomers.

“At the end of the day we could on­ly do so much,” he said.