TWO BLASTED

Two young men had their lives viciously snatched from them last Saturday afternoon in one of the most senseless, boldfaced and wicked acts ever seen by Vincentians in broad daylight.

Brian Lewis of Calder who goes by the moniker “Free-I” and George “Nikki” Browne of Ottley Hall were seated opposite the RC Enterprises storeroom at Bottom Town, Kingstown, at about 3 p.m. when a jeep pulled up nearby and gunmen rained bullets upon them.{{more}}

Free-I, a 32-year-old father of three and Nikki, 27, died on the spot in the hail of bullets.

“If I didn’t have faith I would have died when I saw my son lying dead on the ground,” Lillian Lewis, Free-I’s mother told Searchlight at her home on Tuesday evening.

“What happen to Brian I don’t want that happening to any body’s children,” said Lillian in a hoarse voice, adding that her son received seven bullets.

“Right now I feel like my life is coming out of me,” the grieving mother muttered.

“Brian was my hand, my foot and my whole life. Just like the whole world has been taken away from me,” Lillian moaned.

She said the last time that she saw her son alive was 9 o’clock that Saturday morning when she gave him $300 to purchase food for his children.

“He was a loving, caring person for everybody. He was a father for everyone,” Lewis stated.

She said her son will never be forgotten.

Lillian said she wants justice for her son.

Sher Matthews, the mother of Free-I’s two daughters, a five-year-old and two-year-old, said she felt numb when she heard of her boyfriend’s death.

“I could not believe,” Matthews emphasized.

Matthews and Free-I have been together for seven years. She described him as a kind and loving boyfriend who was always generous.

“I hope they will bring his killers to justice as soon as possible,” said Matthews.

Free-I died four years and five months after unknown gunmen in a white Nissan car fired bullets at him while he was out walking in his hometown of Calder one Saturday morning in May 2001.

Free-I will be buried on Sunday, October 23.

Nikkie, the father of two children, an eight-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son, received a single bullet to the heart.

“I want to be the one to break their (killers’) necks when they go to the gallows,” Yvette Marshall, Nikki’s grieving mother said.

Marshall said when she first got the news of her son’s demise she did not believe.

Melissa DaSilva, the mother of Nikki’s three- year-old son, said she ran all the way from McKies Hill to Bottom Town when she received the news of her lover’s death.

“I was very sad and shaking when I saw him,” said DaSilva, adding that she wants justice for her boyfriend’s brutal slaying.

With their lack of regard for human life, the hoodlums who killed Free-I and Nikki have sent shockwaves across St.Vincent and the Grenadines, for such an act – a drive-by shooting – had never before been committed in the capital. What makes the case more frightening and bizarre is that it happened in broad daylight.

The records have shown that last Saturday’s double murder is the third incident in which the victims were gunned down in the capital. In 1998, Zeilroy ‘Flex’ Harry died on the spot of gunshot wounds to the head and legs, while Kenneth ‘Cyprian’ Dublin succumbed hours later at the hospital from gunshot wounds also to the head in the same incident.

In May 2000, Free-I’s close friend, Henry St. Hillaire of McKies Hill received five bullets from an assassin while reversing his car from the Lion’s building in the vicinity of Karib Cable in Kingstown.

Meanwhile, the police are soliciting any information from the public regarding the murders.

Persons can telephone the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Crime at telephone numbers: 4561810/4571211 Ext.226 or 5307098, or the Public Relations & Complaints at 4856697/4956891.

The police have promised that information received would be kept in strict confidence.

On Wednesday, Sylvester Allen a.ka. ‘Rambo’ of Peruvian Vale and Atiba ‘Crimo’ Waldron of Paul’s Avenue were taken to the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court jointly charged for the double murder of Free-I and Nikki.