Already on the run for two murders and wanted by police for several weeks, Jason Khan told relatives he was not going to surrender or flee the country but was ready to die at the hands of police.
Khan, who was being sought for the murders of Lloyd Ramkissoon, 47, and his son, Ryan Ramkissoon, 19, of Langusta Trace, Toco Main Road, Balandra, on May 13, eventually stuck by his word as he was killed in a stand-off with police at a house in Sangre Grande last Friday.
Police Constable Darrin Francis was shot in the left arm during that stand-off and doctors are still trying to save it.
In a video clip shared on social media of the police stand-off with Khan, Inspector Roger Alexander is heard calling on him to surrender to police after the house was surrounded.
After a few moments, the officers stormed the house and gunshots are heard, the officers appearing nervous at the sound of gunshots. The video then shows a motionless Khan in a black pair of pants on the ground as two guns — a shotgun and a pistol — were seized
Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday, Khan’s brother, Ricardo Dalipsingh, said his sibling was not the monster he was made out to be following the stand-off.
He said it was he who had told Khan that the father and son duo had been killed last month and on hearing it, Khan had expressed remorse. Khan, he said, even sent $20,000 to pay for the funeral of the two men who were once his neighbours.
Dalipsingh said his brother never intended to kill the men. However, he claimed Khan’s vehicle was blocked and he (Khan) was chopped in the head by someone from a group of about six during the incident and he fired into the crowd that was attacking him and fled.
“He thought he just shoot them. It was only when I call him and he was like ‘Yo, two people dead’ he was like ‘What?’ He couldn’t believe they had died,” Dalipsingh said.
“He didn’t go to kill them he was just going tit-for-tat. They beat him and chop him and he just try to injure them likewise. But when he find out they dead he tell me he is done 41 years and he not going to spend the rest of his life in jail and he not giving up himself.
“He done made up his mind. I ask if he leaving the country he said no, he staying here normal. He will live out how much other days he have here,” Dalipsingh added.
Attack led to shootings
Dalipsingh claimed his brother was defending himself during the incident which led to the murders of the father and son in May.
“... the thing about it that hurtful for me, is if them boys didn’t go and chop Jason in the head, none of this would have happened. They look for their own death at the end of the day,” he said.
“The boy (Khan) had everything. He have vehicles, money, everything. They corner him because his pit bull did get away and come and bite up one of them dog and now the dogs and them living and everybody dead,” he added.
Dalipsingh said his brother refused to surrender and be jailed even after assurances that he would be taken care of in prison and a lawyer would be provided for him.
“When he shoot the police he call us. He said I now shoot a policeman and I get shoot myself and this is it here. My sister tell him, to give up but he say ‘nah girl, this is it here.’ He said he get shoot already and we didn’t even ask him where, we was just worried about him,” Dalipsingh said.
“By time we fly up the road we hear he was done dead. At the end of the day he shoot ah police. He didn’t suffer or anything and he went out how he wanted to go out.”
He added his brother was a farmer who ended up in a bad situation and was not a common thug as he was being made out to be in media reports.
He said when his brother, who he described as a loving generous man, was on the run it was a hard time for the family. He said Khan, a father of an 18-year-old woman, did not want to be like another relative languishing in prison charged with murder but wanted to be free.
Police said yesterday that doctors operated on Constable Francis’ arm over the weekend and were still hoping to save it. However, the possibility exists that even if they do save it he will not have full mobility.