Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Two weeks after his home was burnt down, a 30-year-old man was yesterday shot to death at Golconda Settlement, San Fernando.
Micah Singh, who was popularly known as the Bamboo Man, shot into the limelight in March after a video of an altercation between himself and a worker in Palmiste Park went viral. He had beaten the man with a bamboo stick after he was allegedly attacked with a cutlass.
Residents reported hearing several gunshots around 2.35 pm yesterday, and then finding his body in a grassy area off the road.
In a video on social media, apparently shot last week near his aunt’s shop, Singh had stated that “they tried” to kill him on multiple occasions but he did not know why. He said he was also assaulted and robbed on May 18 near a bar. He spoke about how his house was burnt down and that had he been at home he could have died. He also claimed he was forced to stay at Ward One (Psychiatric Ward) of the San Fernando General Hospital but he broke out on Indian Arrival Day.
Speaking at the scene, Singh’s mother Sweny Singh told reporters her son started smoking marijuana last November and his behaviour changed. She said he began acting strangely and was recently treated hospital.
However, she said from an early age he was constructive and independent and would rent and sell land.
She said, “But since he start to smoke he start to act hyper. Hyper in the sense like nothing in a bad way but annoying to people around him. He had some lots to sell in Princes Town and maybe here too.”
She said he spent yesterday morning at her roti shop in San Fernando.
He told her he was selling three lots of land for a lady and she was putting the money in the bank for him, then left around 1.30 pm, she said.
Baffled as to why her son was killed, she said he was not involved in illegal drugs or any underworld activities.
“I cannot say, because Micah is not into any kind of gang to say people hate him and want to harm him. The only thing is that they burnt his house recently here. He himself say what else could make people burn his house except jealously,” she said.
As far as she knew, her son had no enemies.
She said he was the third of her four children, and the one she was least worried about because he was constructive and independent. Singh also had a five-year-old son.
Following the fire at his home, she said he stayed with his father and an aunt.
Officers of the Homicide Bureau Region 3 visited the scene and were last evening still trying to determine a motive.
