Axel Williams was killed by one of his own death squad colleagues after refusing to carry out a hit on a drug kingpin, informed sources say.
Williams, suspected to have been a key member of the group, was killed in a well organised execution involving several people on December 10, reportedly a short while after he refused to carry out a high-profile killing.
His refusal to do the job turned him into the target and he ended up the victim of a brother in arms.
Individuals, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, say Williams was assigned to kill a known drug lord who had had his men work with the death squad, hunting wanted criminals behind the crime wave that followed the 2002 jailbreak. The criminals may have been either potential or real threats to his business enterprise, and this was thought to be the motive for his intervention.
It is not known what made this man the target of the group he had once supported, but this newspaper was told that Williams was asked to plot the murder, as he had done for others many times before.
It also remains a mystery as to why Williams told his intended target of the plot to murder him. But he did, and this led to a confrontation between the target and the man who had ordered the execution. The latter denied that he had ordered the assassination, and it is said that there was to be a meeting between the three men to find out what really had been said.
Within several days of the confrontation, however, Williams was killed. He was shot dead in Bel Air by a single gunman.
On the night Williams was killed, he was chauffeuring a businessman, for whom it was reported that he acted as bodyguard.
Some residents in the area recalled seeing the vehicle he was driving, which was owned by the A&D Funeral Home, on several occasions prior to the night of the shooting.
According to an eyewitness, Williams entered Ituni Street from a southern direction and then steered the vehicle into Ireng Place where he dropped off his passenger.
Further up the road at Duncan Street, a car approached, followed seconds later by two men on a motorbike, who proceeded to the junction of Ituni and Ireng. One of the men, armed with an M-70 rifle, got off and the rider sped off to the south and disappeared.
Minutes later, Williams was reversing his vehicle out of Ireng Place, while the gunman stood at the spot adjacent to the junction, his weapon at the ready.
As Williams reversed, the gunman was seen answering his cell phone almost simultaneously. The gunman then walked a few steps closer to the junction, looking around to make sure no one was watching him.
When Williams almost reached Ituni Street the gunman opened fire, unleashing a barrage of bullets on the vehicle. He continued, drawing closer to the vehicle's windows, the sound of automatic gunfire echoing throughout the area, replaced by complete silence when he stopped firing.
He eased away from the vehicle and was picked up seconds later by a man on a motorbike who drove him away from the scene.
But as he was leaving another burst of gunfire erupted from the direction of the vehicle, where Williams was found slumped over the steering wheel. Another man was later seen with a weapon in his hand walking around.
Williams never had a chance to defend himself and it was obvious that he was the intended target of the gunman, who was identified in another killing subsequently that bore some similarity to that of Williams.
George Bacchus, the businessman who said he had helped locate criminals for Williams and his co-conspirators, would later confirm some of these reports, including the plot to kill the drug lord.
Bacchus, now in hiding since admitting his role in the death squad confirmed reports that were circulating about Williams' role in many unsolved abductions and killings.
Though unwilling to go into detail about the affair, he did describe the drug lord as a very intelligent man who had surrounded himself with loyal men. He was of the view that this was one of the reasons that the assassination plot had failed.
Williams has also been identified by several witnesses, afraid to go to authorities, as being behind several murders over a one-year period. He is suspected to have been involved in others over that time, though his participation in these killings has yet to be confirmed.
Nevertheless the murders of Othniel Embrack, Andrew McPherson, Derrick Torring-ton, Oliver Springer, Lloyd Bourne, Sherwin Manohar, Clive McLean and Clive Savoury have all been attributed to Williams and others who helped him. His accomplices, including the man who killed him, have also been named by some of the witnesses, who are apprehensive about talking to the police force as some serving members have been linked to the group.
In 2002 Williams also killed food vendor, Rodwell Ogle, in an argument over $20. He was never charged and a year later got an upgrade for his gun licence on the recommendation of Minister of Home Affairs Ronald Gajraj.