The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A TAXI driver and a mechanic, both fathers of four, became the country’s first two murder victims of the year over the holiday weekend, leaving grieving families convinced the men were deliberately lured to their deaths.

Rockling Boodle, 51, a longtime taxi driver originally from Abaco, and Ricardo Jean, 35, were killed in separate incidents just days apart, shattering families who say both men had been looking ahead to important milestones.

Boodle was found stabbed at a motel off East Street South on Friday, hours after relatives reported him missing when he failed to return home the night before. He had told his family he was going out and would be back, but never returned.

Jean was shot and killed at his Adelaide home on Sunday after being called outside by someone believed and ambushed by a gunman. Both are  thought to be known to him.

Both of the murdered men had been making plans for the months ahead. Jean was preparing for a spring wedding after welcoming a son last month. Boodle was looking forward to a trip to Cuba with his son and to celebrating his and his wife’s 30th wedding anniversary later this month.

Jean’s sister, Tashana, said the family believes jealousy motivated the killing, claiming one of the men allegedly involved is distantly related.

She said video footage retrieved by the family shows three men outside the Adelaide home, with two standing near an ice cream truck. One rang the doorbell and called Jean outside, while another — the shooter — appeared to be hiding in nearby bushes. A third stood close by.

“The one who called him out, he used to ride with my brother when he was going out and stuff,” she said.

Jean said the footage shows the men pacing and talking before calling her brother outside and shooting him at close range. His fiancée was reportedly inside the house at the time.

“When he came out, him and the boy started to talk, and he looked like he was reaching in his pocket to give the boy something and all of a sudden, I hear the first shot went off, the second, the third and that's when he ran back inside,” Ms Dean said.

She said her brother’s life was “snatched away for nothing,” plunging the family into grief they know all too well. Their mother, who lost a daughter to domestic violence more than a decade ago, told relatives she now has to relive that trauma. Ms Jean said her brother’s fiancée and children are struggling, while the wider family is still reeling from the loss of several cousins to gun violence in recent years.

“I never imagined him to be like a statistic, a victim of murder,” she said. “Like I say, I know he had a troubling past, but he put it behind him, and just from there, he started to elevate and do positive things.”

She described her brother as loving, multi-talented, full of life and quick to make others laugh. She said they were close and spoke often, with him calling when he was down or simply needed someone to talk to.

“Only two of us left now,” she said.

Boodle’s family, who relocated to New Providence after Hurricane Dorian, are also demanding justice, believing he was similarly set up.

His son, Rocklyn Jr, the only one of his children still living in Abaco, said the family sensed something was wrong when his father did not return home Thursday night. When they went to police, they were told it was too early to act because he had not been missing for 48 hours.

The family began searching on their own. Boodle’s younger daughter left work and, while canvassing the area, passed the nearby motel where she saw police and her father’s jeep. She later learned he had been killed.

“Everybody just trying to process everything,” Rocklyn Jr told The Tribune. “We need justice for him, because he ain’t that type person to be bothering people. He liked to make people smile. I never saw him angry in my life.”

He said his father was easygoing and forgiving.

Rocklyn Jr said he had spoken to his father just two days before his death and remembered his final words clearly — that he was proud of his children.

He said he felt uneasy even before learning what happened, only to have his worst fears confirmed the following day.

He described the loss as devastating, saying his mother is struggling to accept it.

“I don’t know how could leave me like that,” he said. “I still don’t believe it. Ain’t no one holding up good right now.”

Police have not said whether anyone has been taken into custody in connection with either killing.