Driver shot, throat slit, beaten with shovel

Even after shooting him dead, gunmen slit the throat and then used a shovel to beat the body of a maxi taxi driver outside his Cumuto home during the early morning hours yesterday. The driver’s wife was also shot but survived and is warded in hospital under armed police guard.

Keshore Ramadin, 52, and wife Taramatie Tambie, 51, were seated in his maxi taxi outside their home when gunmen approached and fired shots through the wind shield. Ramadin slumped over the steering wheel but the killers opened the driver’s door and pulled his body out. They then slit his throat and beat his body mercilessly with a shovel.

Tambie, who was shot once in the chest, had strength enough to exit the maxi taxi and run to a neighbour’s home where she screamed for help. Deputy Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad, who was alerted, hurried to the scene accompanied by officers of the Cumuto Police Station. Tambie was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope where she is warded in critical condition.

Ramadin’s two daughters screamed when they saw his body, before District Medical Officer Dr Elijah Oye Bambo Fagorola ordered it removed to the Forensic Science Centre, St James. Sources yesterday revealed Ramadin had been threatened in a property dispute and he feared for his safety.

Police reported that at about 2.40 am, Ramadin was liming with Tambie before he left for work on the Port-of-Spain to Sangre Grande taxi route. DCP Persad led a manhunt for the suspects and a 20-year-old man from Cumuto was detained at his home and handed over to investigators.

Outraged relatives and friends of the couple urged police to find the assailants. “This is a close knit community, we do not sleep with our windows closed. We live like we are all related to each other and we look out for each other. This was a sinister act planned and organised by a person or persons who wanted Ramadin dead at all cost and I feel there is no value for human life in this country any more,” a neighbour said.

Homicide officers returned yesterday to secure camera footage from one of the houses in the area. They also hope Ramadin’s wife recovers soon to give identify the attackers. President of the Route Two Maxi Taxi Association Linus Phillip said yesterday Ramadin, who was his friend, worked on the Sangre to Grande to Port-of-Spain Route for the past 20 years.

The video below circulated on Facebook showing the crime scene, including the bullet holes in the wind shield, and Ramadin’s body laying nearby on the floor.