When paraplegic Mark Ravello was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head yesterday morning, it came as no surprise to his mother Dawn.
Standing on the roadside in Marabella, waiting for police to remove his body from his car, she said she was bracing for this reality for some time.
“I am not surprised because I figured that might happen one day. Where drugs are concerned, you expect this to happen anytime. It was kind of hard, but I had to brace myself for it...Mark was a cocaine addict, so this was his grounds, he is always in the back here,” she said in an interview.
A police report said around 5.30 am Marabella police responded to information that a man’s body was seen leaning over the steering wheel of a white Honda Civic at Sooknanan Street Ext, Marabella. When the team led by Insp Don Gajadhar and Sgt Dale Ramroop arrived, they found a bare-chested Ravello, 42, of Pleasantville, dead with a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators said the area is a known drug block and they believe Ravello, a former technician at Lewis Appliances, went to purchase drugs. They said the car windows were down, suggesting that the gunman shot him from the outside.
According to his brother, Kendon Evelyn, the windows of Ravello’s car were always down and he usually drove bare-chested because the car had no air conditioning. He said his brother fell off a mango tree 12 years ago and damaged his spine. However, he did not let that stop him and converted his car to use hand controls so he could move around freely, even playing mas on his wheelchair for previous Carnivals.