After being on the run for close to two years, 40-year-old John Kennedy called ‘Big John’ was yesterday slapped with the charge of murder and remanded to prison.
Kennedy, of ‘B’ Field Sophia, appeared before Magistrate Rochelle Liverpool at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court where he was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge. According to the court charge sheet, it is alleged that Kennedy on August 2nd 2022, in ‘B’ Field Sophia, murdered Jaleel Leow.
Reports are that on the day in question, Loew was in the company of two persons, Brandon Smith and a Sophia businesswoman in the ‘B’ Field Area, when they were approached by several men on bicycles armed with cutlasses who asked if they wanted problems. The businesswoman answered and said no but Leow responded that if they wanted a problem, they could have it. It was then, according to a witness, one of the suspects whipped out a gun firing several shots in the direction of Leow, two of which struck him in his back.
Not satisfied with the two discharged rounds, the gunman then stood over Leow shooting him two more times in the chest. Leow managed to get up but collapsed in the back of the businesswoman’s yard where he died. Smith was also injured in the attack. Kennedy was named as the main suspect but had been on the run.
Last week, Kennedy was arrested with a firearm which reportedly matched the weapon used in the attack that killed Loew. But while Kennedy was on the run, his name popped up in various incidents that seemed related to Loew’s murder and another. The Guyana Police Force earlier this year had probed two separate shooting incidents in Sophia which left two persons hospitalized with gunshot wounds and which may be connected to the two murders.
According to police reports, around 9.30 pm on March 3rd, a 34-year-old businesswoman and her reputed husband, a 47-year-old minibus driver, were at their home in ‘B’ Field Sophia. At the time, the bus driver related that his wife and a friend were at the front which housed a shop, while he was inside. Three armed men exited a heavily tinted car with unknown number plates, discharged several rounds in the direction of the man and his wife, re-entered the car and escaped. The husband and wife were quickly rushed to the hospital and the businesswoman was hospitalized with several gunshot wounds to the right side of her face, two to her right arm and one to her left elbow. The bus driver suffered two wounds to his upper back. At the scene, four 9mm spent shells and a suspected warhead were found. CCTV cameras attached to the victims’ shop were viewed and footage was extracted for the investigation.
While police continued to probe that incident, just across from that
crime scene, another man was shot several times as armed men tried to burn his house down. That police report said that the incident occurred just about 00:30 hours on the same day, at ‘B’ Field Reserve Dam, Sophia, where a 39-year-old vendor along with his wife lived with their two children. At the time, the scent of smoke awakened the family. The vendor later got up and tackled the blaze but was confronted by an unidentified male. The vendor heard a loud explosion and later felt a burning sensation in the leg and saw the suspect escaping. The vendor was shot and had to be rushed to the hospital. A 9mm spent shell was also found at the scene.
Witnesses in the area suspected that it was the very same car the suspects used in both attacks. As both matters were being investigated, Stabroek News learnt that the businesswoman, who was a victim of the first shooting was also one of the main witnesses in the murder of Leow. During that period, the names ‘Big John’ or ‘Double Clip’ and ‘Brainer’ were appearing as suspects. The suspect’s names were also called in the killing of Kevin Campbell, the brother of Brandon Smith. Campbell was killed in 2020, during a gang related incident where he was chopped, beaten and stabbed by a gang of 13 men. The men reportedly killed him after he had defended his brother from a similar attack. Kennedy will return to court on July 13th.
