Doolie’s days were numbered

A former don-turned-prosecution witness revealed on Wednesday that one of the alleged members of the One Don Gang wanted to dismember a murder target and to take his head to reputed leader Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan.

The murder target in question, who was referred to only as ‘Doolie’, was fatally shot in the head, reportedly because of his alliance with the Tesha Miller faction of the Clansman Gang.

The killing, which was reportedly carried out by Blackman’s bodyguard, C. J. (defendant Tareek James), occurred in 2017 in front of the supermarket on Chancery Street, St Andrew.

But before the man was gunned down in the night, said the prosecution witness, two unsuccessful attempts had been made on Doolie’s life after Blackman had given the order for him to be killed.

The witness, who claimed that Doolie was his friend, told the court that on the first occasion, Blackman had called some of his cronies, complaining that they were idling instead of murdering the target.

“Unnu know wey Doolie deh and nuh man nah try go fi him,” the witness recalled overhearing Blackman saying.

However, he said Crocs (defendant Fabian Johnson), who had taken the call, had reassured Blackman that “him a go maths it up”.

The witness said Crocs then told him and the others who were going on the hit that “him don’t even need a gun fi Doolie” and went for his machete before they left.

But the ex-gangster said he had to stop by one of his friends to collect another machete after Raetae Blacks (defendant Andre Golding) started complaining that he wanted “to help chop up the bwoy and him cah allow Crocs alone fi kill him”.

The ex-top-tier member also told the court that before they reached, Crocs was saying he wanted to decapitate Doolie and take the head back to Blackman.

According to the witness, when they arrived there, he looked into the supermarket and did not see Doolie. However, they reportedly waited until the store was closed and everybody left to make sure he was really not present.

On the second attempt, he said Blackman sent six men, including him and another driver.

However, he testified that before the men went to the location, they detoured to Park Lane in Kingston, where they went to pick up three firearms - two handguns and a submachine gun.

The witness said when they went back to the location, Doolie was seen packing bags in the supermarket. One of the alleged attackers, ‘Danny’, was said to be quite eager. “Yes, bwoy fi dead tonight,” Danny reportedly said.

“Him say me a go just go cross the road and shoot him through the window and come back, but I told him no,” the witness testified.

The court heard that they then waited until the target was finished working.

But he said when Doolie exited, he quickly got into a taxi, and they decided they would follow the car.

‘Danny’, an alleged member of the gang, had reportedly told them that he was going to kill everybody in the taxi, the witness remembered hearing.

However, he said when they pulled up beside the taxi, he did not see Doolie. When he told the men via phone, they were cursing him and saying that he had left the target back at the supermarket and were calling him a liar.

But he said he told them to follow the car to Half-Way Tree, where they saw Doolie coming out of the taxi. Doolie quickly disembarked and went into the transportation centre and got on a bus, which they again pursued, but ended up missing him before he got to his stop, the court was told.

The witness said when they left and saw Blackman, the men blamed him for not murdering Doolie that night. But he said that the reputed leader cursed all of them, saying, “Unnu call unnuself killer and can’t even kill one man.”

Turning to the night when the target was murdered, the witness said he left work and went to Red Hills Road to a man who carried him to the location as Blackman had instructed him to go there.

The witness said he then called Blackman and told him that Doolie was at work and waited for about an hour and a half until the alleged gang members arrived. He said shortly after, the men went for the guns on Red Hills Road and returned. They waited for Doolie to finish work.

When he was coming out of the store, he said he told the two shooters who were present, and one of them, ‘Suss’, walked across the road and went behind Doolie and shot him to death in the head.

“Him rest the gun pon him and start firing. He was exactly behind him, and when him shoot Doolie, him fire two shot in the air and everybody start run up and down,” the witness further said.

According to the witness, he saw every single shot that his friend received.

Bryan and 32 other alleged gang members are being tried on an indictment with 25 counts under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organizations) Act and the Firearms Act.

The One Don Gang is a splinter of the Clansman Gang.

The witness will continue his testimony today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com