A laborer and father of three, Jermaine Sanjay Trapp, 29, of #2909 Fabers Road, is dead and Cameron Blease, 18, of Ebony Street is in a critical condition tonight at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after a Boxing Day attack on them in the Newtown Barracks area.
Trapp and Blease, our reports say, were in the vicinity of the Princess Hotel and Casino compound in the wee hours of Friday morning, December 26, when, according to an eyewitness who works for the hotel, an altercation developed between Blease and the gunman on Newtown Barracks, in front of the Pickwick Club and MJ’s, located next to each other on the Barracks and just down the street from the hotel.
Blease, reportedly the intended target of the shooting, then attempted to flee the scene. He jumped into Jermaine Trapp’s car, which was parked nearby. Trying to escape the bullets, Trapp drove against the flow of traffic towards the Princess and entered the casino compound through the exit gate.
The determined gunman followed, still shooting. His bullets hit Trapp in the head and back, and Blease in the upper body.
The two were rushed to the KHMH, but Trapp died early in the morning of December 27 whilst undergoing treatment. Blease, initially in better condition than Trapp according to our sources, has since deteriorated almost to the point of a coma.
Family members of Jermaine Trapp were reluctant to say much about the circumstances under which their relative was killed when Amandala visited the family home this evening.
They insist that Trapp never looked for trouble, and was content to be around his family and raise his children.
Trapp, one family member told us, was a “wonderful person,” and did not deserve to die this way.
But the family says they do not have to look far for an explanation as to why he died – Trapp, minding his own business, was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
But Jermaine Trapp and Cameron Blease were out on bail for offences committed earlier this year. Trapp is alleged to be the getaway driver for the robbers who struck RB’s Texaco Service Station on Central American Boulevard on April 28, stealing over $10,000, but he denied that he had been involved in that robbery. Trapp is a former employee of RB’s.
Blease was initially remanded for the July 27 shooting of Lucretia Myvett on Sibun Street, in which he attacked her from behind and injured at least one other bystander. It is reported that Blease was initially jailed in 2005, escaped, and was recaptured.
Police have identified one suspect, one Shakeel “Gapo” Jones of the Mayflower Street area, and seek him for questioning.
Trapp’s death, plus that of two men in Cayo and Toledo (see story elsewhere in this issue), raises the unofficial murder count for 2008 to 94, and for December to 7. Exactly half of Belize’s murders (47 of 94) have been committed in Belize City, which is part of Eastern Division.