Sunday is the international day to end violence against women, and on Friday the Domestic Violence Bill was passed in the House of Representatives but none of it made any difference on the Burrell Boom Road today where a mother of 8 was killed in plain view. Racquel Requena was a taxi-woman going about her work when her deranged ex came up on her in a murderous rage. Jules Vasquez picks it up from there.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
This is where police found 40-year-old Raquel Requena's car. It was still running and she was dead inside from one shot to the head. She had been run off the road by this car, driven by her estranged common law husband Glenford 'Bucket' Bermudez. While at this point no one can say exactly what happened out there on the road, it is believed that Glenford Bermudez, a former BDF soldier, pulled up beside her and fired the shot through the passenger window
that hit her in the head. All this happened - reportedly in front of a woman and child who had flagged down the taxi. Police though would not confirm.
Her daughter Elene Ferguson spoke to her two minutes before the killing.
Elene Ferguson, Daughter of Deceased
"I spoke to her two minutes, two minutes. I asked her to please drop a food home for me, two minutes and she said, 'oh I deh right back dah jail I will come out right now and I will drop it for you.' And then they
called me back and gave me the news."
Jules Vasquez,
Did she had any idea that he was stalking her at that time?
Elene Ferguson,
"Not that I know of, she just stopped top pick up a passenger and that is when he approached her."
And when she reached the Burrell Boom Road she couldn't believe the scene that lay before her. She says she knew Bermudez and her mother were having difficulties and had separated, and in fact her mother had a premonition that violence was afoot.
Elene Ferguson,
"We never expect it. He said it but we never really expected it because she had already left him like three weeks already."
Jules Vasquez,
You told me she had a sense that something might happen?
Elene Ferguson,
"Well not to her knowledge because he always passes those threats but we never knew that he was really serious. I guess so now."
Jules Vasquez,
Did you ever think he could become obsessive and deranged like this?
Elene Ferguson,
"I knew he could become that way but I didn't think that he would kill her because he has a daughter."
And while the killing of those mother of 7 is the tragedy, the story is what Bermudez did after he is alleged to have shot her. He took his car, drove up the road about 5 miles to the Burrell Boom dump. That's where he met James Lord and Glenn Fuller, and asked them for a piece of wiring to go and catch a cow. They showed him this wire on a fan which he cut and then went to hang himself on this tree.
James Lord, Watchman
"He cut a piece of wire and from there he came this side. He jumped over here and one of the young boys form Hattieville, he told him that he had
just killed his aunt and that he was going to hang himself. So the guy ran over there, I didn't really take it serious. So when I looked, the boys told me the man was hanging himself. When I looked, the man had already hung himself. So I told the man to give me the machete. I grabbed the machete and I ran back there and I cut down the man. When I cut him down, he was already waste up on himself and pissed up himself and the man dropped flat on his face, dropped flat on his face and about five minutes after, he shaked up and he took the piece of rope which was around his neck and break gaan. I told those boys for us to citizen arrest the man because we don't really know what happened. When he heard that he just break through the bush."
He bolted, and now this nephew has to live with what he considers a cruel irony: he helped save the life of the man who he believes had just killed his aunt. And Bermudez told him - but he never believed.
Glenn Fuller, Nephew of Deceased
"I didn't believe. I thought he was tripping because my auntie already left him, my auntie already had a next person. So I thought he was playing. I didn't really know that he was serious and thing. I feel like I should have left him to hang, that's it - make him hang or if I had something on me I would finish him right there if I really knew the real truth which went on but I didn't know what went on."
Marion Ali, News 5
"Well that didn't happen, he lived. What do you want to come out of it?"
Glenn Fuller,
"I will you cold, give me a nine and let me stand up in front of him and I will pull the trigger for unu. Just give me that, I will pull the trigger. I am not happy."
Ludrick Arnold,
"The action of him is not a man you know Jules, he is a coward. If he was a man, he would have walked away from that woman because they have many women out dah road deh. Like the how the Creole people would say, there are many fishes in the sea, you get the sense. Its not only that fish we could always rely on. But he is not a man, he is a punk."
James Lord,
"I would rather the man go through the justice system. I wouldn't like to know that anyone kills themselves. If somebody comes to me and say James Lord I want to kill myself, I would tell them not to do it around me. The only way you would kill yourself is if you have a gun and its quick - one quick flash and you are dead, dig. Apart from that I don't care what you do, I don't want anyone to kill themselves. I would rather they just go through the law and deal with it. The family might be upset and thing, that I cut down the man and different thing but the police say it is better that way, it goes through the law and get justice through that."
Elene Ferguson,
"I just want justice and if he had taken his own life, then he wouldn't have any justice. I just want them to know that my mom left seven of us behind, seven. She took care of six of us by herself."
And while the family wants justice, so does the community. Ludrick Arnold got in on the action because he couldn't believe what happened.
Ludrick Arnold,
"That never yet happened in Hattieville here. They took away a mother from so much young ones. That is nothing nice."
Jules Vasquez,
Explain your involvement.
Ludrick Arnold,
"Well for me Jules, I don't even want to know what is happening because me personally, its not my family, but if I had held that man, because me personally make it business and went with the police to go and manhunt the man, however our crew didn't catch the man."
And as the body of this mother was driven away to the sounds and scenes of wailing on the roadside - it's clear that no one will miss her more than her family.
Elene Ferguson,
"She raised six of us by herself. She was my whole world. I can't say enough. I will miss her with every bit of my heart. I wish it was me. She is the only one I have. I've already lost my dad..."
As noted in the story, Bermudez and Requena shared a 3-year-old girl. He was caught by police shortly after being cut down from where he was hanging himself. He is in custody and may be charged for murder as early as tomorrow.
