“Ma, if ah dead, you know who kill meh eh!”
These were the haunting words that replayed in Jean Subran’s head yesterday as she cried out over her son Neil “Jacko” Bhagaloo’s murder on Thursday night.
It was a mixture of heartache and anger at her home, as Subran recalled that after her son was beaten and threatened with death by his eventual killers last week but the police did little to prevent the tragedy. She said the killer was someone he once called a friend.
Bhagaloo, 32, a scrap iron dealer and father of five, was at his Teak Avenue, Claxton Bay home around 8.20 pm when two men parked a white vehicle on the shoulder of the Solomon Hochoy Highway at the back of the house and walked into their yard.
Subran, 55, said she was inside the house when her grandsons ran to the door and told her police were in the yard. When she went to open the door for the boys, she saw two men armed with guns walking into Bhagaloo’s bedroom. She hid as she heard gunshots and later contacted St Margaret’s police. When the officers arrived 10 minutes later, they found Bhagaloo dead with gunshot wounds to his head.
A team of Southern Division police led by Supt Yusuf Gaffar responded and crime scene investigators recovered 12 bullet casings at the scene.
A search was made for the men but up until yesterday evening no one was arrested.
Yesterday, relatives showed Guardian Media a bullet that remained in the ground, which they lit a candle by. Subran was inconsolable, saying her son was killed for rotten pieces of iron. She said last Tuesday, Bhagaloo was in Point Fortin when his alleged killers first attacked him. He had explained to her that he and one of the men once worked together with a truck he had rented to pick up scrap iron. But Bhagaloo decided to work on his own and would carry out twice as many trips as his competitors. After years of saving, he finally purchased his own pick-up and was supposed to collect it yesterday.
Subran said jealousy took her son’s life. She said the man wanted Bhagaloo to pay him $3,000 whenever Bhagaloo sold his haul but it was too much.
“He told me ‘ma, if I dead, tell the police who kill me.’ He started to move like he knew they were coming to kill him. He was moving differently and dancing and saying that they would come after him. I never knew this would have happened,” Subran said.
PC Rahim of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations, Region Three is continuing inquiries.