Who terminated the exterminator?

Aug 02, 2015 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan
The gunmen wanted Mohamed Baksh dead and they didn’t seem to care where the job was done and who saw them do it.
They didn’t care that he was sitting in an enclosed place; didn’t care that two women and an ex-cop from the feared ‘black- clothes’ squad were at Baksh’s side.

It was Saturday, June 16, 2012; the time was 10 p.m., and Baksh, owner of Pest Control Plus, the ex-cop, and two women were sitting in a Thomas Street restaurant named Flava’s Grill, when a car stopped nearby.
It is said that two men entered the restaurant, and one of them, with gun in hand, walked over to Baksh. And though the 43-year-old businessman was also carrying a handgun, he never got to touch it.
The gunman fired. Baksh slumped to the ground, with two bullets in his head, while the shooter and his accomplice fled in the waiting car, described as a burgundy-coloured Mitsubishi Lancer. Police reportedly pursued the car along Mandela Avenue but lost sight of it. Baksh died a few hours later.
Police would later recover a 9mm shell at the scene, but failed to find the gun from which it was fired. Baksh’s friends all claimed that they were unable to describe the killer, since they had all dived for cover when the shooting started. The police also got nothing from the staff at the Thomas Street restaurant.
But investigators knew that someone had wanted the pest control expert dead for a long time.
On August 7, 2008, Baksh had just exited his vehicle in the vicinity of Camp and Lamaha Streets, North Cummingsburg, when another man emerged from another vehicle and shot him. Bleeding from five gunshot wounds, Baksh managed to seek refuge in his property, which was located nearby. From there, he called his wife.
Baksh implicated a former business partner in the attempt on his life. This led police to Paul James, 41, of Barrack Street, Kingston, and Dexter Lynch, 36, of West La Penitence Housing Scheme. They were charged with attempted murder.
In court, Baksh had stated that James was his business partner and that James owed him $31 million. That matter was still before the courts when Baksh was executed.
Two days after Baksh’s death, police detained the same former business partner. But aside from the fact that the businessman and Baksh had a financial dispute, police reportedly had nothing else to connect him to the murder.
The former business partner denied any involvement in Baksh’s slaying and reportedly gave detectives an alibi for his movements at the time of the attack. Some of the man’s associates also reportedly told investigators that he was with them at the time Baksh was slain.
Detectives impounded a burgundy car that fit the description that eyewitnesses gave of the gunmen’s getaway vehicle, but that turned out to be a false lead. The vehicle belonged to a police rank and was handed back to the owner.
Investigators were given a 9mm warhead and a bullet fragment that were extracted from the slain man’s skull. They failed to match it to any firearm.
But though Mohamed Baksh was dead, someone apparently still wanted to hurt his family. Just a few days after his death, someone doused the slain man’s Lot 322 Rohinital Street, Prashad Nagar office and storage bond with petrol and set the building ablaze. According to the slain businessman’s insurance agent, over $50M worth of products was destroyed.
“This clearly shows that this is a serious vendetta against this man. It is clear that his death and this fire are linked,” the agent said.
Almost similar views were expressed by former Magistrate Fazil Azeez, who was a cousin of the slain businessman.
Azeez said that they believed that whoever had wanted Baksh dead, would stop at nothing to wipe out his legacy. At the time, Azeez stated that the family had provided the police with all the necessary information about the case, and felt that investigators should have very strong leads.
But he expressed dissatisfaction at the manner in which the matter was being investigated. While a suspect was released after giving an alibi, the former magistrate noted that a person giving an alibi does not mean that he was not involved in the crime. This just meant that another person may have been employed to do the killing.
Azeez said that the venue where Baksh was shot was not a place he visited often. He believed that the killers must have known where he was going and followed him.
Also expressing dissatisfaction with the legal system, Azeez said that the Preliminary Inquiry into the attempt on Baksh’s life was postponed more than 40 times, despite pleas to have the case concluded.
Baksh had been the foundation of his family and his murder had left his relatives in a state of fear. Because of these security concerns, relatives temporarily took the slain man’s nine-year-old son out of school.
Baksh’s son is now 13 and his daughter is four, his pest control business has now closed, and there appear to be no new leads about his murder.
“It will remain like that,” a close relative said a few weeks ago. “Nobody will pick it up.”

If you have any information about any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 22-58458, 22-58465, 22-58482 and 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected]

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