Police are hunting for a man who shot Dennison Rodney ten times after the two began arguing after an accident in Diego Martin yesterday. Unfortunately, the cops may be stumped in their attempt to solve the case of road rage as no one saw the man who shot Rodney in the early hours of yesterday.
According to police, Rodney, 42, of Cocorite Terrace, Diego Martin, was driving on the west-bound lane of the Diego Martin Highway near the Powder Magazine flyover around 4.30 am when he got into an accident. Rodney and the other driver came out of their vehicles and began arguing, police said. Rodney then walked off but was pursued by the other driver who pulled out a gun and shot him ten times. Rodney bled to death at the scene.
Police said the car involved in the accident was later spotted in Pioneer Drive, Petit Valley. It had a minor scratch on the front left bumper but had been reported stolen days before. Police said the car is now being processed for any fingerprints and other evidence.
One senior policeman told the T&T Guardian that they were now pursuing two angles as the killing was “strange.” He said while Rodney was not known to be involved in any criminal activity, they had not ruled out the possibility that his killing was a hit, especially since the car involved in the accident was found abandoned.
The policeman said for a man to shoot someone like that following a minor argument meant he had a “depraved mind,” adding it was too drastic an act to undertake in a mere accident. After police arrived on the scene and cordoned off the roadway traffic backed up all the way to PriceSmart, MovieTowne, and St James. Rodney, a senior maintenance officer at Vemco Limited, was remembered by his boss, Peter Welch, as a gentleman.
Welch said Rodney was a “genuine person, full of kindness and peaceful by nature.” Rodney’s mother, Gaylene, said her son, from “since inside my belly” never gave her any trouble. She said he had done several things out of character yesterday, including driving to work instead of travelling as he did the previous four days; left home without saying goodbye to her and he argued with a stranger following an accident. “I have to go bury my child just so.
“Whole week his car park on the Terrace because he leave it alone and this morning, first time he take it, he get kill. “You mean the first morning I get up and eh talk to him he dead? I hurting. That is the last time I see my child alive,” she added. Rodney said she heard the sirens but initially thought it was an accident. A few minutes later she was told her son had been killed and went to the scene to see his body on the ground.
“He never disrespect me at all, not one day,” she said as she recounted aspects of his life. “He used to tell me I worry too much and I does quarrel too much. His whole life was like an old man. He never drink, smoke or lime. “He live in walking distance from me and had to reach to work for 6. A woman from his office call and all tell me he wasn’t even supposed to work today. He was going to help her and that’s why he take the car.”
Shot twice in head
Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov said after Rodney was shot and lay bleeding on the roadway his killer stood over him and shot him twice in the head. None of the shots were fatal, Alexandrov said. The fatal shot, he said, entered Rodney’s left arm, exited and re-entered his body on the left side of his chest, rupturing his left lung, liver and abdominal cavity before exiting on the right side of his body.
Rodney’s killing took the death toll to 371 for the year. The figure for the corresponding period last year was 356. In an unrelated matter, police yesterday found the partially burnt body of a man at Ravine Sable Road, Longdenville, Chaguanas. He was believed to be in his early twenties with a low haircut and was barebacked but wearing a red jeans and sneakers with a gold chain around his neck.
Police were alerted to the body by a resident who was returning to his home around 4 pm. DMO Dr Babu Reddy pronounced the man dead at the scene.
