Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Did 58-year-old John Loubon die accidentally, or was he murdered?
Investigators are treating his death as a suspected homicide until the autopsy is performed later this week at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
Investigators were told he was drinking puncheon rum in the tray of a van at Los Atajos, Flanagin Town and fell off, but police said a laceration to his head appeared to be a chop wound.
Loubon, a tractor operator and skilled tradesman, lived in Cachipe Village, Moruga, but for the past year had stayed at Los Atajos to work in the sawmill.
An initial report said around 10.30 pm on Saturday, he was liming with other people when he fell off the tray of a van which was parked along Alcindor Road and reportedly struck his head.
He reportedly got up but stumbled and fell three or four more times until he collapsed under a shed next to the home of a 60-year-old man.
The resident told police Loubon refused medical attention, so he left him there and went to bed.
He said when he went outside around 8 am on Sunday, he found Loubon’s body under the shed.
Police said the district medical officer examined the body and found that the head injury appeared to be a chop wound.
With tears streaming down his face during an interview at his Moruga home, Loubon’s youngest son, David, said based on his father’s injuries, including blue-black marks, it is possible his father was beaten and chopped.
“My father was a good man. I am crying out for justice for my father,” he lamented.
David, 32, said his father consumed a lot of alcohol, but he never saw him drunk to the point where he would be stumbling and falling.
He said, “My father was always safe in whatever he did. I see he went dangerous places, but he made sure he was safe and he came back out alive.”
He said his father sometimes had a bad attitude but had no enemies.
“My father was a good person. He may have had a little bad attitude, but he was a nice person. If anyone asked for anything, he would give it to you. He did not have any enemies,” he said.
Officers from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region III are investigating.
