By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

EMOTIONAL co-workers and friends of 17-year-old Frederick Telusma, who was shot and killed on Monday afternoon, remember him as a “sweet person” who was well known and liked by everyone.

Known to his friends as “Audric,” Frederick worked at Solomon’s Fresh Market in Harbour Bay as a packing boy, from the day the store opened some months ago.

One store supervisor – who asked not to be identified, as store managers reportedly did not want the press at the store – told The Tribune that Frederick worked almost everyday. He wondered if Frederick had come to work on Monday, if he would still be alive today.

She remembered him as a helpful person who was friendly with many store employees. She said she was “shocked” on hearing the news of his death.

“He was very mature,” she said. “He helped out a lot – involved in other activities in the store, besides packing. He was known by everyone because he always liked to crack jokes with other people. Everyone knew him.

“That’s why it was so shocking to us when we find out what happened. And usually on a day like what happened yesterday, he would have been to work because he usually comes everyday; when there’s no school, he’s always here.

“I don’t know what happened, why he didn’t come to work so it’s just saddening to know that he would have been alive today, if he was here.”

The supervisor added: “He was a sweet person and because he knew all of us, it’s going to be a big impact on all of us – everyone in the store.”

Yesterday was a “hard day” for store employees, she said, as many of his friends learned of his death that morning.

“I can’t believe he’s gone. And knowing that he was about to graduate from school, he probably would have been involved in a different department in the store if he pursued that. So it’s saddening,” she said. “Everyone knew him. He was a funny person. He was very outspoken.”

One cashier said the news brought her to tears when she found out about Frederick’s death, having known him for six months.

“He was a nice young man and he used to always sing this special song what like ‘Konshens’ used to sing, hot patty, hot patty - something like that, it used to go. He just was nice,” she said.

“He just was easy-going and he always used to cut up with the girls – the cashiers. If someone used to say, ‘That’s my girl’ he used to say, ‘No that’s mine, I’m taking care of that girl today’; and he always had the latest phone, always; and he was a nice, grown, young man.

“When I heard it this morning, I cried. I didn’t come on the register until later, because I was crying.”

Police are questioning five men in connection with Monday’s shooting incidents that left Frederick Telusma and a 40-year-old man, identified by family members as Marty Knowles, dead at their Kemp Road home.

Three others are in hospital, in critical condition.

The shooting spree started around 12:40pm north of Bar 20 Corner.
Marty Knowles was standing outside his home when he was approached and shot multiple times by two men who had got out of a 2003 white Dodge Ram truck. The truck was reportedly stolen.

Police at the scene said Frederick Telusma apparently went outside to see what was going on and was also shot multiple times.

The gunmen then fled in the truck and a short time later, police received information that three men were shot in the area of Mt Pleasant Avenue off Kemp Road.

According to police reports, the victims – ages 56, 37, and 27 – were sitting, with others, outside a business establishment when they were approached and shot multiple times by a group of men who then fled the area in a white coloured Dodge Ram truck.

The victims were taken to hospital by a private vehicle. They have been detained in serious condition.

A short time later, the truck was seen on Abundant Life Road by officers of the Mobile Division who pursued it into Nassau Village where it crashed into a fence on Taylor Street.

As the culprits got out of the truck, there was an exchange of gunfire between police and the men, resulting in one of them – an 18-year-old – being shot.

Acting on information, police went to a residence off Taylor Street in Nassau Village where they arrested the suspects and confiscated a handgun.

Sources say the men were locked inside a bedroom in the home.

Sources also say a M4 rifle was reportedly recovered by police. Police would only confirm that a high-power weapon and a handgun were confiscated.

Friends and family of Marty Knowles spoke to The Tribune at the scene.

“Marty don’t bother people. He just stay in the yard,” one family friend said.

One relative described how she was out in her yard with her grandchildren when the truck pulled up and shots were fired.

“I heard about 40 gun shots,” she said. “My grandchildren were playing in the yard when the truck pulled up. I grabbed them and just pulled them inside. I was terrified.”

Another woman added: “The children were in the yard; they could have been killed. With the number of people in the yard, it could have been a lot worse.”

Another family friend, who did not want to be named, said after the truck sped off, she saw the victims lying on the ground, bleeding, and called an ambulance.

“Marty spoke to me,” she said, through tears. “He said, ‘Please help me’. We were trying to help him; his pulse was getting weaker and weaker.”

Another resident, who again did not want to be identified, added: “These fellows bold. They don’t care about the community... They don’t know the damage they’re causing this country.”