State witness gunned down in Ste Madeleine

Gunmen opened fire outside a house at Ste Madeleine on Monday night, killing a state witness. They shot him seven times in the head and chest. Police said Kevin Ellis, 25, of 27 Montgomery Street, Ste Madeleine, had no time to run as the masked killers ran up to him and opened fire, as he sat at the side of the road around 7.45 pm on Monday. Investigators said Ellis, who owned a fleet of PH cars, went to visit his neighbour, Shalana Charles, when tragedy struck. Charles said she was helping her children—Jameela, nine, Gyasi, ten, and Jamalie, seven—with their homework when Ellis looked through her window and asked her for a glass of juice.

Charles said: “I went to get the juice but there was none and I came back out to ask him if he wanted mauby instead. He told me no. Then he left.” She added that minutes after Ellis left, she heard loud explosions outside and she quickly fell to the ground, hugging her children close to her chest. “The gunshots were so close to us...I dropped on the ground, then I grabbed my children and we ran out to the back,” Charles recalled. She said that when the gunfire ceased, she heard Ellis’s family bawling. “I walked around to the back of the house and then I saw him lying on the ground...He had gunshots to his face, chest and back,” Charles said.

Meanwhile, Ellis’s relatives said he was gunned down because he had witnessed the attempted murder of his best friend Sean Baptiste. A relative who requested anonymity said Ellis was distraught over the past few days because he had not saved his friend from a terrible beating. “Sean owed some people money and they came for him and beat him,” the relative said. “Kevin saw everything...He knew that his friend was dying and it was eating him up, so he decided to go to the police.” She added that Ellis even took the police to the scene of the beating and he named all four men who were part of the gang of assailants.

Baptiste remained in a critical condition up to midday yesterday. Relatives said hospital officials told them that he was brain dead and was expected to be taken off the life support last night. Ellis’ friend Kimberly Friday said because of the beating, Ellis got frustrated and began drinking alcohol. “Kevin was not himself...He was drinking all day and crying,” Friday said. “He kept saying that he was right there and he could have saved Sean.”

Ellis’ body was viewed by District Medical Officer Dr Ramgoolam who ordered it removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Ellis was the father of two children—Kedel, five, and Kamari, three. Homicide officers have started investigations and are working on several leads. Investigations are continuing.