Toby killed with single shot at Questelles

A single bullet was all that a gunman needed to end the life of Kevin Orando Cameron Toby.{{more}}

Toby, 24, of Choice Hill, Questelles, was shot in the head some time after 8 pm on Tuesday, March 22.

He died instantly.

Just minutes before he died, Toby, also known as ‘Old Bread’, had left the nearby home of his mother Veronica, where he had collected some items to make his dinner, and headed to his grandmother’s house where he resided.

His mother told Searchlight that he was in good spirits that last time she saw him alive.

“He passed down by me and he told me he hungry, so I gave him some liver and two bread and he had some vegetables and say he going up to cook.”

“He not accustomed to going home so early, but he say he was hungry.”

“After I there watching a movie, I hear a bullet go off, so I stand up on a chair and peep up by my mother area, but I didn’t hear nobody say nothing and I didn’t see no one coming down. It was a little after that I hear my mommy start to bawl and call me ‘Vee Vee’.”

Veronica said that as she ran to the scene of the commotion, a number of Toby’s sisters came to her and told her ‘Bread Dead.’

She immediately headed to the Questelles Police Station.

“The police went up there and the police them told me I can’t face it. So I stand up outside. All I see was his feet outside the kitchen. His body was inside the kitchen.”

Just moments before he was murdered, Toby was believed to be sitting on the steps of the kitchen, speaking on his grandmother’s cell phone to someone to whom he had sent a ‘Please Call Me’.

Persons in the area believe that his killer followed him to his residence and hid in the bushes at the back of his home. It was dark by that time.

The only boy of eight children born to his mother, the unemployed father of a one-year-old son was not known to be a serious troublemaker, although his mother admitted that he had had run-ins with the law in the past, and a few years ago he had survived a cutlass attack in Little Tokyo, where he sustained injuries to fingers on his right hand.

She said that to the best of her knowledge, he did not have any current feuds with anyone.

“Anytime he have a problem, he does come and complain, but he hasn’t complained about anything…. I don’t know if he had anything; Only God and whosoever do it.”

Persons in the community, as well as friends of the deceased, were heard on Wednesday morning reminiscing about the night’s tragedy.

One elderly neighbor lamented that she was very hurt when she heard of the death of Toby, whom she described as a cool guy.

“I just can’t believe it. My whole body tremble. They didn’t have to kill him.”

Another young man from the area said that he was unable to sleep the night following the shooting.

“I never see him fight nobody. He was just cool. Everybody feel it. A man don’t deserve to go down them kinda way, no matter what.”

Meanwhile, speculation that there may be some retaliation for Toby’s shooting death has surfaced, but the young man’s mother is appealing for peace and calm, as she holds strong.

“I ask the Lord to give me strength. He is my only son and I love him very much; but the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I am satisfied.

“Vengeance is mine saith the Lord.”

This is not the first such incident to strike the family; just over a year ago, one of Kevin’s sisters was shot in her leg.

She is said to be recovering from that injury. (JJ)