While fighting for the woman he loved, a 37-year-old prisons officer was stabbed to death on Sunday night in what investigators believe was a love triangle between three prison officers. “You see love? Everything does start nice, but it is how it ends,” Ricardo Fraser said as he summed up the tragic slaying of his stepson Dominic Bernard. After a fistfight with a 23-year-old recruit, Bernard, from Jack Street, Marabella, bled to death on the verandah of his girlfriend’s apartment. Bernard went to his 34-year-old girlfriend’s Petra Avenue, Plaisance Park, home around 9.20 pm where he met the recruit liming. The two men engaged in a heated argument over the woman which led to the fight. The suspect then picked up a knife and stabbed Bernard in the back and chest.
Neighbours contacted police after they heard screams coming from the apartment. By the time police responded, led by Supt Zamsheed Mohammed, Insp Ramkhelawan and Sgt Mc Intosh, along with an ambulance, Bernard had already died. Police searched the area for the suspect, who lives in Claxton Bay, but were unable to find him. Eventually he surrendered to St Margaret’s police a few hours later. Up to yesterday, investigators were yet to recover the murder weapon. Speaking outside the family’s home yesterday, Fraser described Bernard as a “cool and humble” person, who had just completed part of a law degree. “He now finished doing part one in law, he was studying to become a lawyer. He was a young and brilliant fella,” Fraser said.
It was a cruel blow for Bernard’s mother, Patricia Bernard, as Fraser explained that it was only yesterday morning that he led police to her workplace at Puff’n’Stuff Bakery, Vistabella, where they broke the sad news.
“She just started to bawl. She felt really disappointed because that was her only son and her last child. It was only two of them that lived in that house,” Fraser said.
The murder toll for 2014 up to late yesterday was 197, with an approximate average of 32 murders a month. Homicide detective Thompson-Green is continuing investigations.