Philomen Benjamin and her son Callis Benjamin (left)
(SNO) — Philomen Benjamin, the mother of 19-year-old Callis Benjamin who was gunned down in Desrameaux, Gros Islet on Saturday around 5 p.m. (Sept. 1) along with his cousin Rohan Louison, 13, is seeking justice for her son.
Philomen told MBC that her son was a loving individual and dismissed rumours he was armed on the day he was shot. She claimed in the television news report that it is one individual that is spreading such rumours.
Recounting the events leading up to her son’s death with MBC, Philomen said her son had told her he was going up the road with some friends.
Not long after, she heard the news of the shooting.
“I saw people running running in the gap,” the distraught mother recalled. “I saw, I met a young lady, I asked her what’s going on there, she told me like it’s somebody they shot there. I said ‘who is that?’ She tell me the person name Craig, so I said ‘who is Craig?’ She kept telling me is Craig. I said ‘who is Craig?'”
Philomen added: “When I reach there I saw it’s my nephew GREG that lie down in a pool of blood, fighting for his life. So whilst I was attending to him, a lady called me and told me, ‘but look they shot your son on the other side there so’. When I go and check on my son, when I get closer to him he call ‘mommy, mommy’. I said to him, ‘well just relax my boy, relax yourself’. So they take him and they got him on the other side of the road but from time I saw him I say like he won’t make it.”
While being attended to by ambulance personnel, Philomen said her son complained about his pant being too tight and asked that it be removed. This was done.
She said he then complained about “the straps” on his feet being too tight and asked for them to be removed. His feet was unstrapped.
She said that was the last time she heard words from her son.
Reports are that Callis sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the back. He was admitted to Victoria Hospital in critical condition. He later died.
His cousin, Louson, likely died on the scene from a bullet wound to the back of the head, but the Vide Boutielle Secondary student was officially pronounced dead at hospital.
Callis would have turned 20 in December while his cousin would have turned 14 on September 19.
Meanwhile, law enforcement sources told our newsroom that the police did receive information that Callis was armed or went for his firearm prior to or during the incident.
A firearm was recovered from the scene, but from preliminary reports, the .380 gun belonged to one of the shooters, the sources said.
The sources noted that whilst Callis may have been good to his peers and relatives, he was known to have gotten himself in trouble on numerous occasions.
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