A well-known fisherman was shot and killed in the streets late Saturday night and his family can't figure out why. The victim is 43-year-old Cleofo Lambey who was shot near his king street home. Police are tonight seeking two suspects who were on bicycle while his family is doing searching of their own. Keith Swift has the story.
[August 2000] Cleofo Lambey: I've been a fishermen for quite some years but right now I'm not a fisherman, I buy and sell.
Dawn Sampson: In the next hour or two, all of this will be gone?
Cleofo Lambey: I doubt it, it depends. If you will buy some then I already know.
Dawn Sampson: How will you convince me to buy some from you?
Cleofo Lambey: How I will convince you? I mean hey...take a look.
That was Cleofo Lambey, popularly known as 'King Kerub', in classic form doing what he did best at the Vernon Street Fish Market - making a sales pitch to 7NEWS' Dawn Sampson in a story about the fish market. That was August of 2000 and now 5 years later his life would come to a sudden and violent end.
This spot, not even 100 yards from his home, is where the 43-year-old Cleofo Lambey was gunned down and killed around midnight on Saturday. Witnesses say Cleofo was waiting in front of the "A touch of Class" Bar buying food when two men on bicycles circled the area and finally one approached him and opened fire. Cleofo was with his wife Shirley Lambey within the hour before his murder.
Shirley Lambey, Wife
"Saturday night about minutes to 11, he came home and we watched a little bit of boxing. After boxing he got dressed and he told me he was going by Lion King to play some pool. So I asked him if he was going to take a cool off for the evening and he said yes. He told me 'babe I will see you,' and those were his last words to me."
The next time Shirley saw her husband, he was lying on this sidewalk on Euphrates Avenue already dead with a gunshot to his upper body.
Shirley Lambey,
"I was awaken out of my sleep when I heard my daughter say, 'they just shoot kerub,' and that is what woke me up and I ran out there and when I got out there I saw him lying down face down on the sidewalk."
Keith Swift,
Where was he shot?
Shirley Lambey,
"In the chest."
That was a single and fatal shot. Shirley and Cleofo had only been married for 3 years and she can't think why anyone would want to murder her husband.
Shirley Lambey,
"He was a very kind hearted person. He would always be there to help everybody and on the other hand he was very outspoken. He is a person that if you do something to him, he will not keep that inside, he will tell you as it is and I think everybody knows him for that."
Police have not made any arrests.
