The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

The younger brother of Transport Minister Renward Wells was gunned down and killed outside his home over the holiday weekend.

And last night the dead man’s mother said while her son Cabrio Wells had his “ups and downs” with the law, she doesn’t know “what went wrong” for someone to shoot him to death.

Anna Glinton, in an interview with The Tribune yesterday, said while her “baby boy” had his fair share of “jail problems”, he had since “turned his life around” after serving a stint in prison.

Ms Glinton added that while she was “somewhat” surprised at the news that her son was killed, she insisted he was not a bully, but rather a “cool guy” who would only display aggression if provoked.

According to police, Wells was standing outside a home on Roland Street, Ridgeland Park shortly before 4am Sunday when he was shot multiple times to the body. Paramedics responded to the scene but were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead.

Yesterday, Ms Glinton said the house where Wells was shot was his home. She said she got a call around 3.20 that morning from Wells’ girlfriend who told her he had been shot. Ms Glinton said at that time, Wells’ girlfriend said he was still breathing.

However, Ms Glinton said when she arrived on the scene some time later, police officers told her that her son was dead. She said by that time, they had already placed a white sheet over his body.

Ms Glinton said the last time she talked to him was the night prior, when he went out at around 10.20pm. She said one of the last things he asked her for was a Maltonic beverage in her fridge.

“…He asked me if he could have it,” Ms Glinton told The Tribune. “I said ‘yeah man, go have it man.’ He said he going out, I said ‘okay then, be safe.’ That was always my words to him, be safe.”

Fast-forward to just hours later when she got the call from his girlfriend, Ms Glinton said: “To be honest I don’t know what went wrong.”

“He had his share of stuff,” she explained. “My child is a no nonsense person. If you get on his bad side, yes, it could be a problem.

“Cool guy, like I said, (once) you cool, he cool,” she continued. “You rub him the wrong way, yes you’re going to feel his reaction from it if you get him to that point. But other than that he’s a cool fella.

“Like I said, he had his ups and downs. He went to jail, he came out, he turned his life around. I ain’t gone hide that from you. Because if you dig deep enough, you would know those things anyhow.”

Ms Glinton did not disclose any specifics about her son’s troubled past. However, in 2013, police reported how Wells was shot after being hit by a stray bullet intended for another man, Aaron “AJ” Thurston.

At the time, reports were that Wells was just passing by when he was struck by the bullet, which was fired because of an after-work game of backgammon gone wrong between Thurston and the gunman.

Wells was shot in the stomach and was listed in critical condition. Thurston died at the scene.

Bamboo Town MP Mr Wells told The Tribune at the time that the bullet went “straight through” his brother’s body and “nicked several of his vital organs”. After surgery however, Mr Wells said his brother was safely “out of the woods”.

The Bamboo Town MP could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Concerning Sunday’s shooting that claimed the life of her son, Ms Glinton said she was holding up fine, though she said she is unsure of how well she’ll fare when she goes to the morgue today to identify Wells.

“I come to grips with what happened,” she said. “The hardest thing in life is acceptance, and I accept what happened. I accept what people say because that’s life. I’m not going to be the only person they say things about. That’s my child. I still love him all the same.

“Like I said he had his share of ups and downs, you know? Jail problems. He came out, he turned his life around.”

She also said the two shared a “very good relationship”.

“I have six kids, three boys and three girls,” she said. “He’s my baby boy. (We had a) very good relationship because I still cook (for him) and wash his clothes. He didn’t live with me but I cooked his food and I washed his clothes. But we had a very good relationship.

“If there was something I didn’t like I would tell him about it. One thing with him, when it comes to his mother, he would tell his mother. If I say I hear certain things, he would say ‘yes I did that’ and ‘this is why I did that.’ He was open with me.

“One thing I could say, we had a very good relationship.”

Wells was one of two men killed on Sunday.