Former national hurdler Ansil Nicholson, 28, was told to get over a “bad vibes” he had yesterday and was encouraged to go help a cousin move bags of gravel for renovation to his cousin’s home.
The decision proved to be fatal, however, as gunmen approached Nicholson, 28, as he sat drinking water during a break from the work and killed him around 10 am.
At the scene of the murder at Longden Street, St Joseph, yesterday, relatives said they had several premonitions on Nicholson’s death prior to yesterday’s attack. Following on such premonition, relatives warned him to stay away from a girl he was supposedly involved with after two of her boyfriends were killed almost a year apart.
His sister, April, said she dreamt death not long before that Nicholson was murdered, while another lamented that he posted getting a bad vibe on his WhatsApp profile.
His mother, Donna Mitchell, said her child, who once brought pride to the nation in the 400 meters hurdles, had been on the wrong side of the law, but that was long ago and he had since got over that when the case was dismissed.
“As a son he was miserable, but I don’t know him to be in any mischief or any crime or anything. He just had his little case going on and they throw it off just last week Wednesday. He hustle all over the place. That’s it. He would hustle to make an honest dollar,” she said.
She said he was supposed to finish the work with his cousin over the weekend but chose to go to the senior national track and field meet at the Hasely Crawford Stadium instead. She added that he didn’t want to go help his cousin yesterday either, but she convinced him to. Mitchell said her son, who stopped professional running about three years ago, also told her about his uneasy feeling and was told by her to “rebuke the feeling”.
Nicholson’s murder was one of two which pushed the toll to 223, 28 more than the same period last year.
The other killing was that of 36-year-old Brian Vesprey. Police said Vesprey was found dead at Calvary Hill, Arouca, around 9.45 pm Sunday, after residents heard gunshots.
At the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday, his girlfriend, Rene Augustus, said he was a giving soul who left even her undone to assist others.
Vesprey, originally from Cedros, had four children, three girls and one boy, between the ages of eight to two.
“He used to work offshore and then when he on land he does a little welding. He liked his hustle. He never left his children wanting anything or hungry, I could say that proudly and tell anybody that,” she said.