The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE wife of the country’s latest murder victim cried over her husband as their children clung to his disfigured body after he was shot dead early yesterday morning.

Eddie Miller had just returned to his car from a shop at a plaza at the corner of Faith Avenue and Cowpen Road when he was killed, according to eyewitnesses.

“He opened his door, but he looked at me like he had no chance to reach back in his car,” said Samuel Rolle, a witness. “I mean, they put at least five or six shots in him.”

“The wife was crying, ‘Oh, my husband’, and the young kids were just around the body, holding the body and crying saying, ‘my daddy, my daddy.’ It’s terrible.”

Officer-in-charge of the southwestern division Tess Newbold said officers received information about a shooting shortly after 9am.

Officers found a man lying on the ground with gunshot wounds.

She said three masked men reportedly approached the man from a white vehicle, shot him, and then escaped west along Cowpen Road.

She could not say if Miller was known to police. Loved ones mourned the

victim at the scene, and bystanders expressed shock, especially because the victim’s children, wearing school uniforms, witnessed their father’s murder.

Mr Rolle beckoned for the government to intervene and stop the killings.

“Right now, it’s scary,” he said. “These people ain’t got no regard when they coming to kill someone. They don’t care if your kids there, they don’t care if your wife there.”

Nearby, at SQS Food, Judy Davis was present when the shooting occurred. The staff, shaken by the incident, closed early for the day.

At first, Ms Davis thought the sounds were from a generator outside.

“Unfortunately, when one of the co-workers looked on the other side of the window, she noticed that there were shots going off, and so when she said someone is being shot at, I was like, you gotta be joking,” she said.

“We were serving customers, and everybody moved away from the window and inside. We panicked because we didn’t know if we needed to come

outside or stay inside. To be honest, I was not even able to get down when they said get down low. I stood right up, and the only thing I said was, Jesus, have mercy.”

Carlos Reid, a Ministry of National Security consultant, said he met Miller a few times. He said he was a hard worker, a building contractor, and the owner

of a car wash company on Market Street.

“One time ago, if somebody had a beef with you and they saw you with the kids, they would let that slide,” he said. “But nowadays, this new generation of gangsters, they don’t care. If you with your mother, grandmother, they don’t care; kids around.”

Mr Reid is particularly concerned about the trauma the incident could impose on Miller’s son.

He said: “To witness his father killed in the front of him, do you know what kind of mindset that could break inside that young man? That’s my main concern at this particular time.”