At press time tonight, police say that they still have no suspects in the cold-blooded murder of a man on Monday night as he lay in bed watching television.
Leon Burgess, 25, of Cybil Reyes Street in the Holy Emmanuel Street Extension in the Gungulung area of Lake Independence, was callously shot and killed at about 10:20 on Monday night in his one-room house in his mother-in-law’s yard while he lay on his bed next to his girlfriend, watching television.
Burgess, an employee of the RF&G Insurance Company, died about 30 minutes after he was shot, and his killer remains unidentified and at large.
According to his family, a killer went into the yard and fired about 11 shots at him through an opening in the side of the plywood house, hitting Burgess in the head, chest, back, side and arm.
Julia Arana, Burgess’ mother-in-law, told Amandala in an interview that her daughter and Burgess came in at about 9:15 p.m. and had something to eat, after which they relaxed and talked on the back verandah. Shortly after, at about 9:45 p.m., they went into their house.
Arana said she dozed off, but shortly after, she was alarmed by gunshots fired in proximity to her house. She heard her daughter scream, and she rushed to Burgess’ house after the shooting stopped, and saw him with several bullet wounds. Her daughter, miraculously, was unhurt.
The police were called, and shortly after, an ambulance came and took Burgess away.
Arana said that the area is dark, and there are no dogs in the yard, nor is there a yard light. She had clamored for some time for a light to be put on the lamppost in the area, but so far it had not been done.
She had heard rumors for some time now that Burgess would be killed, Arana said, but she prayed and fasted, and asked God to help him. When she heard the murderous gunshots in her yard, however, she knew that the killers had come to kill him. She said that she became numb and asked God for strength.
Arana’s daughter said that she was in bed dozing when she heard gunshots and “zinging” sounds flying by her ears, but she did not react immediately.
After the shooting stopped, she then got up and saw Burgess, and asked him what had happened. He did not answer, but just looked at her and nodded his head, and he lay down on the bed, because he had been sitting up watching television.
Burgess, she said, then turned his head to one side, and she knew something was wrong and began to shake him. He wanted to talk, but he could not. She then checked him and saw that a portion of his bleeding ear was missing, and blood was coming out of his mouth.
She shook him and turned him on his side, and along with blood that was coming out of his mouth, he spat out a slug, which was followed by much more blood coming from his mouth.
The common-law wife said that she told her brother to hold Burgess and talk to him, while she went to her mother for help. The ambulance and police came and he was taken away, she said, but that took about thirty minutes. She believes that if she had gotten a vehicle to rush him to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) immediately for emergency treatment, perhaps he would have survived.
Police reports are that at about 10:30 Monday night, they responded to gunshots being fired in the Holy Emmanuel Street Extension area and when they went to Leon Burgess’ house, they saw him suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Burgess was transported to the KHMH, but was pronounced dead on arrival. The body now awaits a post-mortem.
Police processed the scene and six 9mm expended shells and two slugs were recovered.
In remembering him, Diane Finnegan, the Director of the Youth Apprenticeship Program, said that Burgess entered the program in 2012 with a group of friends, as a young boy looking for direction, trying to take a new path in life, and to see what the Youth Apprenticeship Program could offer him. He went through the six-month mentorship and training program, and that was when, she said, he displayed his potential to achieve success in life.
Although Burgess might have wanted to change his life, police said that he was known to them through gang and criminal activities. In November, 2011, he was one of three men they arrested and charged for the burglary of the Ministry of Education building on Mahogany Street Extension. However, police said that they are not yet sure if Burgess’ death was gang-related.
However, his mother- in-law, Julia Arana, said that he was humble and respectful, and never responded rudely when she scolded him, expressing her displeasure on some things. Also, her daughter, his common-law wife, said that he treated her well and that he was nothing like what was being said about him. They do not know why he was viciously killed.
Arana calls on parents to show their children love and appreciation, and urges young people to love and appreciate each other, and to stop hurting themselves, and to live in harmony with each other. She pleads with the young people to stop the violence, because families are hurting.