An Oropouche man who planned to marry his children’s mother next year was shot dead outside his home on Saturday by gunmen who blasted 19 shots at their target.
Kareem Modeste, 28, who worked as a warehouse attendant at SM Jaleel Co Limited, was walking up the stairs at the side of his home at #98 Dow Village, South Oropouche when he was shot repeatedly. The killers fled through some bushes and exited through the residential Grove Park community.
Modeste’s body bore multiple gunshots in the back and buttocks. He collapsed face down on the staircase, clutching a blood soaked tee-shirt and his phone.
In an interview yesterday, Modeste’s common-law wife, Shurlaine Edwards, said she awoke around 5.45 am to mix some tea for her two-year-old son Kaleem when she heard a loud thud on the staircase.
“When I came out I saw Kareem on the stairs and I thought he fell. I didn’t hear any gunshots. When I looked closely there was blood. I see the steps shoot up and I realised he was shot. I ran back inside and called the police,” she said.
Edwards said Modeste went to a parang lime close to their home on Saturday and spent the night liming with his friend Marcus Hodge.
“He didn’t have any fight with anybody. If he fall out with people he will talk back to them the very next day. He didn’t hold grudges,” Edwards said. The couple had two children and lived together for the past five years. Edwards said Modeste was busy fixing the downstairs floor of his mother’s home so they could move in by Christmas.
“We planned to get married next year,” she said.
Modeste’s mother, Jill Alexander, said she wanted justice.
“If they did chop him, I wouldn’t mind. If he was in the hospital, I wouldn’t mind. But they shoot him four, five, six times. I not taking this. He is my only son,” Alexander said. She said Modeste was a diligent worker and a loving father.
“He used to drink his rum and make a little joke but he didn’t deserve this. He didnt do anybody anything,” Alexander shouted. She said one week ago, her brother, Boy Mitchell, died from cancer.
“This is the second death and I cannot deal with this,” Alexander said. Hodge also said that Modeste had no dispute with anyone at the parang lime. He said he dropped off Modeste at his house.
“Kareem told me that he drank and he had to work today and I said I will pick him up. I see him take off his jersey, put it around his neck, close the front gate and walk down the hill. I drive off afterwards. Next thing I hearing that he dead,” Hodge said shaking his head in disbelief.
Officers of the Southern Division Homicide Bureau visited the scene and took statements. They discovered a track where the assailants fled. Several spent shells were also retrieved. An autopsy has been scheduled for Monday.