ONE SON DEAD, ONE ARRESTED
Canadian diplomat’s horror in Miami
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- yearold 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 seconddegree 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.
But at about 1 p. m. on Monday, as 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.”
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 Jean Wabafiyebazu lay dying, another “kid” came out of the apartment screaming, “my brother, my brother.” This was most likely Marc. “I was talking to one of the neighbours when shots rang out,” Medina 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.’”
Medina said it was well known in the neighbourhood that a drug dealer lived in the apartment.
“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.”
Police say Marc and Jean Wabafiyebazu drove up to the tiny apartment complex 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.
Shots 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 Wabafiyebazu at the scene and also caught Rodriguez. They charged Marc Wabafiyebazu with Wright’s murder and Rodriguez with the murder of Jean Wabafiyebazu.
Rodriguez was released on US$ 150,000 bail Wednesday while Wabafiyebazu remains in the Miami-Dade juvenile detention centre 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 shoot the gun.
Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge Wabafiyebazu 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 Lycée Claudel when they lived in Ottawa.
Former classmates of the slain teenager 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 Dubé 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 Wabafiyebazu’s body will be flown back to Ottawa this week for a funeral and burial.