Cops shoot, kill man in Maraval

BILLY “Gargamel” Toussaint, 47, was shot dead by police during an exercise on Thursday night in Maraval. He had filed reports to the Police Complaints Division against officers who threatened him, relatives said.

“That is wickedness how they killed the man,” said the mother of Toussaint’s children who asked not to be publicly identified. “That man loved his children and his children loved him. This is going on all over the world and it needs to stop. I don’t think this system was made for justice. It eh have no justice (sic).” Relatives who were at the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Friday said that contrary to police reports which indicated Toussaint was among a group of men who fired on police, Toussaint was returning from a nearby parlour when he was stopped by police and shot. When he was killed, he didn’t have a gun in his hand, but beers and a pack of cigarettes, relatives claimed.

They said Toussaint who was a gardener and contractor had returned to Latin Trace, Cameron Hill in Maraval, from the market, not to long before 11.36 pm, when he was shot. Relatives said he had gone to a parlour where the mother of his two children operated, to get beers and cigarettes. However the parlour did not have what he wanted, so he went to another where a group of men were liming under a mango tree.

Just as he was leaving, police arrived and shouted orders for people to freeze. He was later shot dead. Police said they were searching for a man wanted for murder as well as others with outstanding warrants, when they came across a group of armed men gathered under a mango tree. The men shot at the police who returned fire. Toussaint was shot in the head, hand and foot during the exchange.

He was taken to the St James Infirmary where he was pronounced dead. Police said they recovered a 9mm pistol from Toussaint.

Newsday was told a relative gave him access to a parcel of land not far from his house, so he could plant garden. Relatives said that when he began to plant the land, Toussaint was met by a policeman who lived near the land.

“This guy brought three plainclothed police officers and they were harassing Toussaint and his sons trying to get them to stop planting the land,” a relative said.

Relatives said they advised Toussaint to complain to the Division which he did and filed reports.

For the year so far, 27 people have been killed by police.