‘Gladiator’ slain

While homicide detectives search for a motive behind the murder of controversial media personality and civil rights activist Ricardo “The Gladiator” Welch, members of the media expressed shock over his death.

Welch was shot dead yesterday between 9.10 am 9.17 am while reversing out of the driveway of his Santa Cruz home.

Media veterans called him a headstrong, bombastic and rambunctious, who went from being a vendor to one of the most controversial media personalities.

“He was not into writing about facts, but he was a commentator with a gift of gab; and he used that to his advantage,” said Andy Johnson in a conversation with Newsday yesterday.

“He was a media personality; a media hitman. His style was to go after people, and that is why I called him a hitman. He was rambunctious and bombastic and always looking to pick a fight with somebody then take them to court.”

Newsday was told that the Gladiator got his start in 2001, when Johnson saw him debating with a group of people in Woodford Square. Johnson said, at that time he was given the challenge of keeping radio station Power 102 alive, when the radio station was on the verge of shutting down.

“When I went in staff was leaving every day. There was a programme called the People’s Platform, and I took it over and started going to Woodford Square and having debates with people.

“He used to be in the square holding court with people and we used to have these debates, and one day I went to the management and asked to bring this guy on the air. I was allowed to do it and he came on the air there and he never looked back.”

From there he developed a style of shock media, which may attracted some and annoyed others, but always proved to entertain.

Former co-host, Richard Ragoobarsingh described him as a very theatrical character, and recalled the first time he saw Welch use his signature sound in his radio show, of swords clashing.

“One time he came with a pot spoon and a ladle to the radio station. I asked him what he was doing with them and he said it was his swords. He would clang it with vigour and shout “Gladiator!”, because he was a big fan of the movie, Gladiator, and that was where he got his name from,” Ragoobarsingh recalled.

Since then he had left Power 102, and moved to several other radio stations, taking his controversial style along with him.

Welch was also at the centre of several legal matters. One of the latest was in September where a judge ruled in his favour for damages of over $1 million.

Operations Manager, Reuben Mohammed, told Newsday he last spoke to him on Thursday as he celebrated his 54th birthday.

Although they had not worked together for about 15 years, Mohammed said his death was a shock to the entire station.

“His death is a statement to the condition of the country where reporting news and having an opinion as a journalist could be threatened,” Mohammed said

“It is part of a larger problem of criminality in this country and how many times that we are going to see grief on our papers. The longer they persists the closer it gets to home, and it is getting to the point where everyone knows someone who was murdered. It may not be someone close but you know that individual.” Ragoobarsingh added

Police have not established a motive for the killing.

The murder toll for the year now stands at 422.