SASCHA WIL­SON

In­sen­si­tive com­ments by a per­son record­ing a cell phone video of the body of a man who was fa­tal­ly shot, have gen­er­at­ed ire among so­cial me­dia users.

The de­ceased has been iden­ti­fied as na­tion­al ath­lete, Josi­ah Patrice, Gas­par­il­lo. He al­so worked as a bar­tender.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, at about 12:15 pm on Thurs­day 19 No­vem­ber 2020, a mo­torist was dri­ving along Con­nec­tor Road in Re­form Vil­lage, near Gas­par­il­lo, when he saw a man kneel­ing on the road. The dri­ver stopped and the man re­port­ed­ly asked for help as he col­lapsed. The dri­ver called the po­lice.

Up­on ar­rival at the scene, the of­fi­cers found a 300-me­tre blood trail that led to 9 mm shells. Patrice's body was found in a grassy area at the edge of the road­way.

Com­ments made by the man record­ing the video of Patrice's bloody body caused a stir on so­cial me­dia.

The man re­port­ed­ly said: "Man get bul­let. Bul­let in he M..... C... News al­lyuh, down Re­form Road al­lyuh, done know, dead man. If al­lyuh know him, al­lyuh fam­i­ly come and get him."

So­cial me­dia users felt the high num­ber of mur­ders in the coun­try has caused peo­ple to be­come de­sen­si­tised; oth­ers said he was il­lit­er­ate and had no re­spect for the dead. Patrice's jew­ellery was miss­ing. How­ev­er, po­lice are still try­ing to de­ter­mine a mo­tive for his killing.

On Face­book, blog­ger TTgame­plan ex­tend­ed its "con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, friends, team­mates and loved ones of #TeamT­TO ath­lete, Josi­ah Patrice".  They al­so post­ed a pho­to of Patrice par­tic­i­pat­ing at the NAAA TT Se­ries #4 Meet, in Feb­ru­ary, where he had set a new per­son­al best in the 200-me­tre event.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.