The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

THE heartbroken girlfriend of a man killed on Sunday said her two sons were robbed of the precious memory of spending Christmas with their father, with one crying: “Mummy, daddy is dead.”

Her boyfriend, Torvaz Dames, 23, was one of four killed in 48 hours during a bloody holiday weekend. Another person died during a police-involved killing.

On Saturday, a 31-year-old man was killed in the Gambier Village area. On Christmas Eve, two separate shootings led to the death of two men, including Dames. On Christmas Day, a 38-year-old man was shot and killed on Jerome Avenue, south of Pyfrom Road. 

Aaliyah Cooper said she quickly left work when she learned from Dame’s mother that he was shot.

 She and his relatives went to the hospital, praying he was there. While waiting on information from staff, she saw her boyfriend’s face all over social media as one of the men killed. 

 “I found out by social media,” she said. “And then they were saying to me and his family that someone was in the bush hiding with a gunshot wound, and they were on their way bringing the person to the hospital, so we were hoping that was him, but it wasn’t him.”

 She said it broke her heart knowing that her two-year-old and one-year-old sons weren’t able to spend Christmas with their father. She said she lived with the man, and the two looked forward to celebrating the holidays as a family. 

 “This is the worst feeling ever,” she said. “I never thought I would be a single mother to my two kids. I never thought my kids’ father would have left me so soon at such a young age.”

 Days before the victim was murdered, Ms Cooper said he gave her money to go Christmas shopping for the boys. She described him as a loving, involved, and passionate father to his kids.

 She said his two-year-old son had been asking when he would come home.

 “I wish I could just reach out to the person, whoever killed him,” she said. 

 Torvaz was a construction worker who dreamt of moving his family abroad.

 Ms Cooper said she believes he was a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 He was killed in the second fatal incident on Sunday. In that case, police said Shotspotter alerted them to gunshots in the area of Balfour Avenue and Ida Street and on Robinson and Claridge Roads. They learned that two men on a red and white Honda 650 motorbike were chased by two other men on another motorbike. The two groups were reportedly firing gunshots at each other.

 On Robinson Road, one of the bikes experienced engine difficulty. Onlookers said the rear passenger of the second motorbike opened fire on them, grazing the leg of an off-duty police officer.

 When officers approached Robinson and Claridge Roads, they found a man putting Dames into a white vehicle. The man sped off and was pursued into Montel Heights. Officers found the two men with gunshot injuries, with Dames dying. 

 Earlier, shortly before 8pm on Sunday, a man at “the tracks” was approached by the occupants of a white Japanese vehicle who tried to rob him of his red and white Honda 650 motorbike. The victim, a 29-year-old from Fox Hill, resisted and was shot multiple times along with a nearby 18-year-old youth. Both were taken to hospital, where the 29-year-old died. The 18-year-old was in critical condition.

 Shotspotter technology notified officers about the Christmas Day incident. Officers found a man in black pants and a white singlet at the intersection of Jerome and Corlet roads with multiple gunshot wounds. Police said they knew little about what happened and appealed to the public for help.

 Meanwhile, police are questioning two men after a 31-year-old was shot dead in Gambier Village shortly after 10pm on Saturday. The victim was reportedly leaving a business on West Bay Street with a woman relative when he was shot multiple times by the occupants of a red Mazda Versa, who later switched to a grey Honda Civic. 

 Officers saw the Honda around John F Kennedy Drive and Baha Mar Boulevard and gave chase, ending on Lancaster Lane, off Christie Avenue. They found a high-powered weapon with ammunition in the car and arrested a 30-year-old man from Pastel Gardens. Intelligence also led them to arrest a 22-year-old man from Skyline Drive.

 Police also said they killed a man on Sunday after responding to a disturbance at a residence on Palm Breeze Road off Carmichael Road. Officers alleged a man with a cutlass engaged them, prompting them to shoot him.

 In an earlier police-involved incident on Saturday, officers shot a 38-year-old man after responding to gunshot reports around Grant Street. The man was in stable condition.