Pubdate: Thu, 02 Apr 2015
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Authors: William Marsden and Shaamini Yogaretnam

'THEY HAD EVERYTHING'

Canadian consul's son killed, other charged

Bloodstains were still visible in the doorway of an apartment in the
quiet Miami neighbourhood of Coral Way on Wednesday, two days after an
alleged plan to rip off a drug dealer left one of the sons of Canada's
Consul General to Florida dead and another charged with murder.

Jean Wabafiyebazu, the 17-year-old son of longtime diplomat Roxanne
Dube, died in hospital of injuries suffered in Monday's shootout,
which police say erupted during a dispute over two pounds of
marijuana, valued at US$5,000. His 15-year-old brother Marc is being
held in a youth detention centre, charged with felony murder and
potentially facing the death penalty.

Another teen, Joshua Wright, 17, a suspected drug dealer according to
the Miami Herald, died from multiple gunshot wounds inside the
apartment building. A fourth man, Anthony Rodriguez, 19, suffered a
gunshot wound to the left arm and is charged with second degree murder
with a deadly weapon and possessing marijuana for the purpose of
selling. "This is not a place where stuff like that is supposed to
happen," Alex Hernandez, 34, said of the blue-collar community of
white and pastel stucco bungalows and small terraced apartments with
sunbaked tiled roofs.

But at about 1 p.m. on Monday, as Mr. Hernandez worked in a
neighbour's garden, gunshots shattered the calm.

"I heard about six shots consecutively," he said. "A couple of moments
later I heard another four shots. I saw a guy run out of the apartment
with a gun in his hand. I think he was shot in the shoulder. A couple
of minutes after another guy ran out behind him. I think he was shot
in the stomach. He stumbled down and fell to the ground."

Hernandez said a girl came out of the apartment "screaming and crying
and then the cops rolled up, helicopters, everything."

The neighbourhood of Coral Way is part of the sprawling community just
west of the upscale Coral Gables, the traditional home to Miami's elite.

Carlos Medina, a builder who was working on a neighbouring house, said
that as Jeanlay dying on the ground, another "kid" came out of the
apartment screaming "my brother, my brother."

This was most likely Marc, 15.

"I was talking to one of the neighbours when shots rang out," he said.
"One of the kids came out. He was upset. He was screaming something
about his brother, 'brother, brother'. Then the cops came and said '
You killed him, you killed him.' [The kid] started screaming again
'f-k this, f-k that.'"

Medina said it was well known in the neighbourhood that a drug dealer
lived in the apartment at 3600 17 th SW, Miami.

"Everybody knew something was bad at the house," he said. "Every day
cars coming in and out, kids smoking pot, a lot of arguments."

"This is a great neighbourhood," he said. "Coral Gables is right
there. You've got families here. Beautiful homes, beautiful malls."

George Patterson, 30, a software engineer, lives a block away from the
crime scene.

"Everybody in the community is pretty bent out of shape over this," he
said. He added that he had no idea drugs were sold at the apartment.

"I would not live here if I had known," he said, adding that he has
three children.

Police say Marc and Jean Wabafiyebazu, drove up to the tiny apartment
complex at in their mother's black BMW with diplomatic plates.

Armed with handguns, the brothers allegedly planned to rip off two
drug dealers of two pounds of marijuana priced at about US$5,000.
Where they got the guns has not been disclosed.

Jean went inside the apartment where he confronted the alleged drug
dealers, Wright and Rodriguez.

Shoots were fired. Rodriguez, who was wounded in the arm, fled the
scene. Meanwhile, Marc Wabafiyebazu entered the apartment where he
discovered the bodies of his brother and Wright, according to police.

Police arrested Marc at the scene and also caught Rodriguez. They
charged Marc with Wright's murder and Rodriguez with the murder of
Jean.

Rodriguez was released on US$150,000 bail Wednesday while Marc remains
in the Miami-Dade juvenile detention center pending a bail hearing.

Both teenagers have been charged with murder even though they didn't
pull the trigger. Florida law dictates that anyone who participates in
a crime that leads to murder can be charged with the killing even if
they didn't pull the trigger.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge Marc as an adult in which
case he could face the death penalty.

Police claim both men have confessed to the crime. Rodriguez is also
charged with possession of marijuana with intent to traffic.

Prosecutor Santiago Aroca told the court Rodriguez has been a "drug
dealer for a long time" and was involved in a similar shooting in the
past, according to the Miami Herald.

The Wabafiyebazu boys both attended private French school Lycee
Claudel when they lived in Ottawa.

Former classmates of the slain teen, have posted messages of grief
online.

At their father's house in the Ottawa suburb of Gloucester, a
childhood photograph of his two sons lay face-down on a shelf Wednesday.

"It makes me sad looking at that picture," Germano Wabafiyebazu
said.

The grieving father said the sudden tragedy that has befallen his sons
has stunned him.

"Now I've lost my 17-year-old son and I don't see how to change it,"
he said. "It's too late."

"Add to that the case of [my younger son] - he's not even cleared.
It's too much for somebody like me. I'm not somebody accustomed to
this kind of life."

Wabafiyebazu, who is half-Angolan and half-Congolese, met Dube in
1983. He said he still considers the mother of his children as family
and that the two remain on good terms, though they are separated.

Growing up, the children were privileged and wanted for
nothing.

"They had everything," he said.

"They never had problems, that is what is sad."

Jean's body will be flown back to Ottawa this week for a funeral and
burial.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt