The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE father of a quiet, ‘hardworking’ handyman gunned down by masked attackers Wednesday night is demanding answers, saying he could have believed gunmen were hunting his other son — but “not this one”.

Dwight “Smily” Benjamin, 35, was shot dead shortly after 9pm after leaving a residence off Father Calnan Road, off Market Street.

Police said two men approached on a scooter before one, dressed in a black jacket and white mask, climbed off and opened fire.

The attack fatally wounded Benjamin and plunged his family into disbelief, with relatives struggling to understand why anyone would target a man they said avoided trouble and devoted his life to working and helping his family.

His father, Shawn Benjamin, told The Tribune yesterday that his son never bothered anyone.

“My son ain’t that type of person. I have another son. If they say they come for that one, I could believe that, but not this one,” he said. “I upfront. I grieving right now.”

He said his son had been visiting a friend when the gunmen struck.

Mr Benjamin later went to the friend’s home searching for answers and was told the attackers had targeted the wrong person.

“I been hunting,” he said. “I don’t care whoever I come behind. That’s my son. I been hunting. I been up and down the place where they does be.”

The killing tore open an old wound for the father of four, who said gun violence claimed his eldest son in 2008. He now has two surviving sons.

“I done lose a son. I done know how it feel but this the second one and for unnecessary (expletive),” he said.

Relatives described Benjamin as a quiet, family-oriented handyman who worked hard, kept largely to himself and rarely ventured beyond his job and home.

They said he readily ran errands for relatives and could tackle mechanical, construction and other hands-on work.

His cousin, Shandera Sweeting, said the nature of the killing had deepened the family’s anguish.

“This is why it really hurts a lot,” Ms Sweeting said. “Smily don’t even trouble people. This the first time my family ever had to go through something like this and for a person who don’t even party or any of them things, to do my cousin so dirty.”

Ms Sweeting said the family had only recently buried another relative and was struggling to absorb another death.

“Something really need to be done with all this reckless killing,” she said. “They take away my uncle son. He didn’t deserve that. Smily was a very respectable man.”

Benjamin’s killing pushed the country’s murder count to 41 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.