An­na-Lisa Paul

Ian Downes was a re­spect­ed el­der in the Mor­vant com­mu­ni­ty who worked hard, and had dreamed of ex­pand­ing the fam­i­ly’s con­struc­tion busi­ness.

How­ev­er, gun­men had oth­er plans for the 58-year-old of Sec­ond Cale­do­nia Road, as they am­bushed and killed him on Mon­day night as he sat in the gallery of his home.

He was the own­er of Downes Con­struc­tion and In­vest­ments Ltd.

An anony­mous caller in­formed of­fi­cers of the Mor­vant Po­lice Sta­tion that gun­shots were heard com­ing from the house.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors lat­er found the con­trac­tor, who is a right-arm am­putee, ly­ing on the gallery floor, with a sin­gle gun­shot wound to the right side of his face.

Shocked and dazed as they stood out­side the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, yes­ter­day as they wait­ed to iden­ti­fy his body—griev­ing rel­a­tives cried.

One woman said, “Dad­dy was a very hard work­ing, lov­ing and car­ing fa­ther.”

She added, “He was a very hard work­ing man and would nev­er give up on any­thing. He would strive for ex­cel­lence and bet­ter­ment.”

He was the broth­er of Guardian Me­dia Ltd’s Em­manuel Downes.