St. Maarten – Roberto Francisco Gumbs was gunned down in Middle region on Tuesday night around 9 p.m., the police confirmed in a press release. Given the victim’s background, the killing is most likely drugs-related, though the police did not give any information to this extent.
Police patrols rushed to Middle Region where they found the lifeless victim lying on the ground, bleeding from several gunshot wounds. Dr. Douglas pronounced the death of the victim.
Detectives and the forensic department talked to witnesses and collected evidence from the crime scene. The investigation is in a preliminary stage, the police report noted. “It is still unclear what exactly happened and why.”
The report notes that the victim is “well-known to the police” and for good reason. In September 2011, Gumbs, who was 41 at the time of his death, was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment for kidnapping and torturing an Israeli drug dealer, Nael Awad on December 16, 2010.
Together with others, Gumbs tortured and interrogated Awad about drugs and money, while his victim was tied all night long to a chair in his home in Middle Region. The interrogators burned Awad’s ears with cigarette butts and they pushed a hot iron on his leg.
Awad, a native of Nablus on the occupied West bank, was forced to set up an appointment with a man called Tito in Cole Bay with the intention to rob this man of drugs and money. The robbery never happened because Awad managed to escape from the car of his tormentors.
Against this background, the police are probably looking for Gumbs’ killers in the criminal drugs circuit.
Middle Region killing most likely drugs-related
