Shermine Caesar clasped her hands over her mouth, stifling muffled screams yesterday as she mourned for her son Kellon Benjamin, who was murdered.
Caesar was at her Ridgewood Gardens, Golconda, home when Guardian Media visited. Benjamin, 34, a father of two children, was shot and killed outside of Caribbean Vibes Bar in Marabella after a night out playing cards with friends. Caesar said she often begged her son to stay away from the bar, which she referred to as “the bar of death.”
According to a police report, PC Subero and PC Gomes from the Marabella Police Station were on mobile patrol in the area when they got a call around 4.30 am that there were several loud explosions outside of the bar. Officers said a bar attendant discovered Benjamin lying motionless near the entrance of the bar with a gunshot injury to the chest.
At Benjamin’s home, Caesar, a retired WPC, last attached to the Mon Repos Police Station, sat in the walkway of their home and cried uncontrollably. She shouted, “He really not coming back again. Oh God, no, no, they kill him! What did they kill him for? It hurt so much. He was going so good, six years now he going good. He came home last night and changed his clothes around 12. I didn’t know that was the last time.
“Why they kill him? Ah trying to stay strong. I tired talk to him going by that bar, that bar take so much of lives, always some chopping or shooting. Kill him right dey for what? He was going good. Six years later, he walking the right road because I tell him I can’t help him anymore. Last night was the last night, and he ain’t coming home. He really not coming home?
“That is the bar of death; I always tell him that that bar, Caribbean Vibes, is the bar of death!”
Caesar said in the past, Benjamin had a history of getting into trouble and had done some “really bad things,” but he had changed his life. “I see him on the ground with a bullet shot in his right chest when I went. He was going good, he wasn’t no goody-good boy, but he was going good for six years. He was walking the right road for six years now. He did a lot of bad things. I tired talk to him, I take plenty bail, and I tell him I’m done with that, and six years now he walking the right road.
“Cause he love his children, up to yesterday (Friday), he carry she (his daughter) to train in Manny Ramjohn Stadium; she get pick for zonal sports. She going good in her school. He do all kinds of things; I not covering for no child, but I don’t know why,” Caesar said.
She said that in 2005, his father, Cecil Benjamin, was also shot and killed in Port-of-Spain. She said a friend called and informed her that Benjamin was shot.
Caesar said her son would frequent the bar to play card games and gamble. She said she believed, through the Lord, that justice for her son’s death would come and appealed to illegal firearm users to “put down the guns.”
She said too many young black men are falling victim to violent attacks, and it was their parents who carried the burden of grief.
She is optimistic that the police will bring her son’s killers to justice.
Benjamin had a 13-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter. Marabella police officers are continuing investigations.