By NEWSDAY REPORTERS Thursday, September 18 2008

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SAD END: Undertakers remove the bodies of the couple from the Royal Castle restaurant in Curepe Junction yesterday. ...

IN FULL view of customers at the Curepe branch of Royal Castle fast food restaurant, a man yesterday shot to death his girlfriend before committing suicide by putting the gun to his forehead and pulling the trigger.

Traumatised eyewitnesses told police that at about 11.15 am, Ricardo Jason Duncan, 31, of Sellier Street in Curepe, stormed into the fast food outlet and confronted his girlfriend Adowa Grant of Ramgoolie Street in Curepe, who was seated and having a meal.

Duncan accused Grant of being unfaithful and she told him something which caused him to be enraged. Duncan slapped Grant and pulled out a Taurus pistol from his pants pocket.

According to eyewitnesses, Grant asked Duncan what he was going to do and he pointed the weapon at her and fired six times. Grant slumped to the ground and died.

At this stage, a weeping Duncan stood over Grant’s body and looked at her. He then placed the pistol to his forehead and fired once, falling to the ground near Grant’s body.

“He just looked at her and shot her six times in the upper body,” an eyewitness told investigators at the scene.

Four students from the School of Business and Computer Science in Champs Fleurs who were in the restaurant, started screaming and had to be comforted by Royal Castle staff while the police were called in.

Duncan’s name was being cross referenced with names in the Police Service criminals/suspects database as investigators tied to ascertain whether he had a criminal record and how he came to have in his possession an unlicensed firearm.

The four students were taken to the Arouca Police Station where they were interviewed for close to two hours by Inspector Stanley Ramdeen and PC Mohammed, both of the Homicide Investigations Bureau.

The bodies of the killer and his girlfriend were removed from the crime scene at about 1.52 pm.

Gemma Antoine, HR Manager of Royal Castle told Newsday: “We are looking at offering counselling to the employees” as she confirmed several staff members were very traumatised by the incident. She was unable to say when the Curepe outlet would reopen for business.