Homicide Bureau takes over probe into fatal Carapichaima shooting

TWO male relatives are assisting police in Saturday’s shooting death of 24-year-old Dillon Straughn, the alleged cable thief from Carapichaima.

Homicide Bureau Region III police have taken over investigations.

A police report said Straughn died on the spot at Waterloo Road near Sinaswee Street in Carapichaima before daybreak on Saturday.

He was shot in the driver’s seat of a car that crashed into another car.

Two passengers, aged 16 and 17, were also in the car. One suffered minor injuries and the other was unhurt. No one was injured in the other car.

The police questioned the two teenaged passengers and later allowed them to leave without charges.

The police believe there was a dispute between Straughn, his two passengers, and residents over cable theft committed moments before the shooting.

Residents however, gave another account of what happened, when interviewed by Newsday on Tuesday.

They said they called the Freeport police around 2.30 am, after seeing men stealing cable lines at Waterloo Road.

A resident called out to the thieves, who ran toward Robert Street. About an hour later, more men returned and parked a B12 car in the road.

"Who is to tell they did not come back to do harm," said a resident who asked not to be named. One of the men was in a resident’s yard. The owner called out to the unknown man.

"The man in the yard ran and got in the car. One of them shouted, ‘Shoot, shoot.’ Someone from the car pointed an object looking like a gun. He (one of the detained men) fired in the direction of the threat. The car was in drive and hit another car. Many residents came out to help," the resident told Newsday.

The police did not find a gun in the B14. Some residents believe one of those who came to "help" might have stolen it. An autopsy is set to take place at the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James, pending a covid19 test.