ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The mother of prison escapee Trevor Jacobs Jr, who was killed by police officers on Saturday, said the killing of her son was unjustified.
“Murderers dem be fuh put seven bullet inna me pickney. Nobody call me and say nutten cuz mussa a wan dog me be. And he’s not a dog,” the mother, known only as Jacintha, shouted.
Jacintha further issued a threat to the officers whom she blamed for her son’s death.
“Everybody who pull de trigger deh, just watch, a Dominica me come from and when me done bury him, me go, go home and aryu go see. Nine days me go gie aryu.
“Plenty times dem lock he up, he never did nutten,” she screamed at police officers outside the Mount St John’s Medical Centre.
Police spokesman Corporal Frankie Thomas told OBSERVER media when police cornered Jacobs and tried to recapture him, he was armed with a cutlass and became confrontational.
During the incident, several shots were fired at the 24-year-old escapee. But it is unclear whether he was hit then, or later that evening during a second confrontation with lawmen, a police source said.
Police reports are that some time after 2 pm Saturday, they received a report of a break-in at a house in Falmouth, which is owned by a hotelier and lived in by an ambassador. When they responded, they reportedly met Jacobs inside the property, located on a hill, in a bushy, isolated area.
After an alleged confrontation with police, Jacobs escaped. After a five-hour search, the police allegedly caught up with him. Shots were allegedly fired again and Jacobs was caught. He was then taken to Mount St John’s Medical Centre in a police vehicle.
Minister responsible for police and prison, Steadroy “Cutie” Benjamin, said Jacobs died around 9 pm while he was still in the Emergency Room at Mount St John’s Medical Centre.
At the hospital, his mother said she saw “seven bullet holes” on the body when she went to the Emergency Room. She said there were three in the front, three matching at the back and one in the side, near his arm.
During another of her intermittent outbursts, in the presence of a crowd, the mother blamed “the system” for “creating” the criminal Jacobs had become.
Jacobs had been on the run since November 2 after he scaled the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison in St John’s around 3:30 pm that day.
He allegedly did this in the presence of two prison officers who were with him in the Maximum Security area, where he was taken to have a shower.
Jacobs, who has been before the court on numerous occasions since he was 10 years old, has convictions for assault, gun possession and robbery, among others.