Ambitious cabbie gunned down

Madly in love, Kadian Findlay said she was beginning to think about sharing a lifetime with Romario Ewart.

The two, who met in 2017 at a cultural exchange programme at the University Technology, had become inseparable. But tragedy has separated them as about 10 p.m. on Sunday, the well-liked taxi operator was shot dead on Asquith Street, Admiral Town, Kingston, while transporting a passenger. His bullet-riddled body was slumped over the steering wheel of his white Toyota Probox. The body of the passenger, who the police only identified as 'Boysie', was discovered some metres away.

When THE STAR spoke to Findlay yesterday, she was inconsolable. She said that Ewart, 24, had just eaten dinner and went to buy gas. But when she was awakened by a bad dream about 6 a.m. on Monday and did not see him, she knew that something was very off.

"Him no sleep out so when mi get up this morning and he was not in the house mi call one of his cousin who have a car and say, 'Romario no sleep out, so this is unlike him and mi wah go look fi him'," Findlay said. A frantic search for Ewart yielded nothing, and Findlay, who works as a customer service representative, started to have "bad feelings" inside her stomach.

Findlay travelled along Ewart's normal route in case he had been in an accident. She then went to the Half-Way Tree Police Station in St Andrew to lodge a missing person report.

"They told me that the car was of interest to the police and that I should go down to the Denham Town Police Station (in Kingston)," she said sobbing.

The 15-minute drive was like hell for Findlay. All she was thinking about was Ewart, who was in his first year studying logistics at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean.

"When we got to Denham Town we were waiting for a while, so I decided to go by Kingston Public Hospital to see if I could hear anything. But when I got back to the station dem say to me say somebody dead upper Seventh Street (in Trench Town)," she said. Findlay's worst fears were proven right.

Ewart's older sister Shantel described him as a loving person who was always keen on helping others.

"Him and nobody have anything that we know of, it's just a wrong charter at the wrong time. A just that we see it as. Him have dreams, big hopes. Him is a go-getter," she said.

Her sentiments were shared by one of Ewart's co-workers, who along with several other taxi men had taken the morning off to show their support.

"Is a yute weh well ambitious Fada. Him have a round robin, him have him truck licence and a wah day him go sign up fi the police thing. Every man cut up right now because a one a wi dis drop out and Ewart a good yute," said the grieving cabbie.

Findlay said her partner's death has left a gaping hole in her heart.

"Him a mi bredda, mi friend, mi lover. Him a di closest person to me. Our plan was to buy a house, another car, then start our family. In my mind this is not happening," she said.