Christine Rambarran, the girlfriend of Jason De Florimonte, the driver who was fatally shot on Saturday morning by a city hotelier is demanding justice while stating that the deceased had not attacked the perpetrator as is being claimed by his staff.
Rambarran, 24, who shared a child with Jason, related to Stabroek News yesterday that Jason was not armed with a knife at the time when he was shot as is being claimed by a woman who is employed in the hotel’s kitchen.
“…Because of the distance I was from where the incident happen, the yard (Jason’s yard) is a long yard. It would take a time for Jason to run in and come out back and head straight over to the hotel”, Rambarran said, while noting, “of course I have a rolling pin and I have knives. But I don’t have a white handle knife and I don’t have a Rambo knife in my house. Because the knife that the woman was flashing was a big knife and that she said Jason came running in the hotel with. I don’t have any big knives in my house except the chopper”.
De Florimonte, 30, of Lot 96 Fifth Avenue, Subryanville, Georgetown was shot four times in his chest after a confrontation with the owner of the Tourist Villa Hotel, located at Lot 95 Fifth Avenue, Subryanville, Georgetown, obliquely opposite to his house.
The shooting occurred around 1.45 am Saturday after De Florimonte had pursued a worker who tried to defuse a row between the now deceased man and Rambarran.
The hotelier, who has been identified as Erwin Bacchus, 45, of Lot 260 B Fifth Avenue Subryanville, Georgetown was taken into custody.
Commander of ‘A’ Division Marlon Chapman yesterday told Stabroek News that Bacchus remains in police custody.
An autopsy performed yesterday showed that De Florimonte died as a result of multiple gunshot injuries.
Stabroek News was previously told that De Florimonte and Rambarran had a misunderstanding outside his home early Saturday morning after an evening out together.
Terrance Newsun, 29, a handyman at the hotel, witnessed the commotion from the gate of the hotel and he intervened
As a result, De Florimonte turned his attention to Newsun, who ran into the hotel with the man chasing after him.
While there, De Florimonte then had a confrontation with Bacchus, a licensed firearm holder, who eventually shot him.
Rambarran explained that moments before, she and Jason had an exchange of words during which he pushed her down and she sustained a bruise to her right hand.
“There was a guy over the hotel, he said ‘don’t do her that, is your wife’. Jason turn and Jason said ‘that’s none of your business’. When Jason said that’s none of your business I raise up off of the floor. I wasn’t looking in the hotel direction but when I raise up I saw there was a man in a blue t-shirt. I didn’t see the man face, I left and I walked and I go to the corner. When I walk and go to the corner I hear four shots. I didn’t know where the shots was coming from so I went back into the street and I saw Jason lifeless body on the road”, Rambarran recalled.
She noted that at this point, there was no one outside of the hotel and she started to scream. “Then they came out and I beg them to take him in a car but nobody moved. They waited till the police come and move him. By time we got there (hospital), he was already gone”, she said.
She added that she then went to the police station where she provided the police with a statement on what transpired.
“..Jason was not in the hotel hitting me. My stuff happened outside of the hotel. We were on our bridge where we living. That is where the problem happened. It didn’t happen in the hotel. I can’t say I saw Jason walk into the hotel because when I got up I just keep going without even looking back. Until I heard the shots, then I turn back and I say I going and there is where I saw him on the road lying down”, Rambarran added.
The grieving woman is seeking justice.
“Let not this be about money in this country. You don’t get justice when anything happen to your family. My father was murdered two years ago and I got no justice. I never got a call from the detectives, never. I want justice for him (Jason) and for his boys. They mean everything to him. All we want is justice”, she said while adding, “he could have shoot him in his foot. He didn’t come to rob him. Even if they had a confrontation. He didn’t come to take anything from you. He has three innocent children”.
