GUNS, DRUGS & DEATH
Until their world blew up in a hail of lead, Canadian Consul General Roxanne Dubé and her two teenage boys had lived, however briefly, a gilded life in one of the world’s most iconic sunsplashed cities.
It was a life of privilege and opportunity, decorated with swaying palms, bougainvillea blossoms, eternal blue skies, white beaches, soft pastels and a turquoise ocean that goes on forever. It told of an effortless, brilliant future.
But that’s all gone now. Proof of the tragic fall is seen in the scarred remains of Ms. Dubé’s eldest boy, Jean Wabafiyebazu, 17, placed this week on a stainless steel body tray in the Miami morgue awaiting the handiwork of a forensic pathologist.
His baby-faced kid brother Marc, 15, is in “secure detention” at a Dade County juvenile facility.
Instead of scoring on his report card, he was in court on Tuesday where the prosecutor added up the numbers that determined his detention status.
“The score should be a 20 because of the added charge of felony murder … a punishable-for-life offence,” the prosecutor said.
She added that he’s a “flight risk” to Canada. Marc’s Montreal-born lawyer Curt Obront replied: “Well, Canada is almost a part of the United States.”
No bail for Marc, at least not yet. He awaits another hearing Wednesday when Mr. Obront will try to convince the court to release him into the protective custody of his mother.
On that date, the state of Florida will likely formally charge Marc. As it stands, police have charged him with murder and threatening a police officer after his arrest.
“I’ll shoot you in the head,” he allegedly told the detective.
That’s some tough talk from a 15-year-old.
All of this stems from what police claim was an attempt by Marc and Jean to steal from alleged drug dealers Anthony Rodriguez, 19, and Joshua (Obama) Wright, 17, two pounds of marijuana worth about US$5,000. A gun battle broke out. Joshua and Jean were shot dead and Mr. Rodriguez was wounded in the arm.
Prosecutor Santiago Aroca later claimed Mr. Rodriguez “has been a drug dealer for a long time” and had been involved in a similar fatal gun battle in the past.
It happened on Monday afternoon in Joshua’s shabby, ground-floor apartment in the working-class neighbourhood of Coral Way, just west of — but worlds apart from — Marc and Jean’s rarified world in Pinecrest, one of Miami’s toniest neighbourhoods.
Only a week ago the two brothers were living with their mother in the gated Pinecrest community of The Gables by the Sea.
The entrance is manned by a security guard who emerges from his adobe-roofed, airconditioned guardhouse with a smile and a friendly “good day.”
He asks where you’re going, signs you in and writes down your licence number. A camera takes your picture. Only then does he raise the barrier to Ms. Dube’s locked paradise, the one that’s supposed to keep the gunslingers out.
Their home was a melon-yellow bungalow set among palm tress and tropical plants. In the backyard, a concrete swimming pool is surrounded by potted palms. A fountain spews clear water. Birds dash about in the trees and bushes.
Marc attended Palmetto High School, a public institution well financed by the wealthy citizens of Pinecrest.
Jean was in the senior class of Gulliver Preparatory School, “Home of the Raiders.”
The private high school costs parents about US$30,000 a year. Here the students come and go in BMWs, Mercedes and other luxury cars.
Rimmed with an iron fence discreetly hidden among trees and bushes and with security guards at every entrance, the student body is well protected from the outside world.
What it can’t protect them from is what goes on in their own heads.
The brothers arrived in Miami with their mother in February. They were newcomers to high schools where friendships were already welded. They were also black in a white society in a country where that matters.
As Canada’s top diplomat in one of America’s richest states, their mother was busy with parties and meetings, making her own alliances and contacts.
According to the boys’ father, who is separated from Ms. Dubé, Jean already had a drug problem and had fallen in with a bad crowd.
“Jean, he’s very extroverted …. I would lie to you if I [said] I didn’t notice or expect that something like that would happen to him, but not to Marc,” Germano Wabafiyebazu told reporters at his Ottawa home on Wednesday.
After the arrests, Miami officials hushed up the Canadian connections. When the Miami Herald broke the story late Tuesday, social media, the favoured playground of teenagers, took over.
In Ottawa, Jean’s former classmates posted messages of disbelief as they seemingly tried to square the “funny, caring, loving” guy they had known with the one killed by Florida gun violence.
Memorial photos of the elder Wabafiyebazu brother showed him as a geeky-looking kid at an elementary school birthday party, posing in face paint or making goofy faces with a group of girls at a beach.
“He was always fun to be around, he always had some crazy idea he was gonna try and do and I loved that about him,” wrote one friend.
He added, “even though I haven’t seen him in the last two years, the news shocked me nonetheless. “
Adults remembered him as a “lovely young man,” acquaintances called him a “good kid,” and few could hint at any criminal leanings.
All except for one cryptic post from someone apparently close to Jean’s Ottawa circle.
“When you try to take a shortcut in life, you either end up in jail or end up having your mom cry at your funeral; choose your path wisely!”