Marcel Samuels Shot Dead in Butcher Burns
Marcel Samuels
A well known butcher and jeweler was executed this morning as he went to his farm in the area of a favorite swimming spot, Butcher Burns. Sixty-two-year-old Marcel Samuels was ambushed in a quiet farming community as he and his wife were heading to their livestock farm, when two gunmen rode up and opened fire on the unsuspecting Samuels. News Five’s Andrea Polanco reports on this latest homicide just off mile twenty off the George Price Highway.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
Sixty-two-year-old Marcel Samuels and his wife were walking on this road in Butcher Burns when they were ambushed shortly before six this morning and Marcel Samuels was gunned down. According to residents in the area, they were awaken by the sounds of gunshots – one caretaker said he heard as many as ten shots – but police say that only a single shot was fired which fatally hit Samuels in the head. He fell here to the side of the road some distance away from his farm – farmers in the area called the police when they realized someone was shot. The usually quiet and calm ‘Butcha Burns’ was teeming with cops and concerned citizens.
According to the people in the area, Samuels and his wife were heading to this farm – where he has a pasture where he raised livestock – mostly cows. Whenever he visited the farm he would use this dory to cross the river. The caretaker of a neighboring farm said that it has been weeks since he last saw Samuels crossing the river. He said he didn’t know him very well but he was a quiet and easy going man, so he was shocked to find out that he had been killed in this quiet farming community.
According to neighbours in the area the killing has all the trappings of a hit. They say that it appears that two men lay-waited the couple and took them by complete surprise – so they drove past the couple as they walked in. And after one of the two men shot Samuels in the head, they took off on their motorcycle. They say Samuels was carrying his licensed firearm but didn’t get a chance to use it to defend himself. The men didn’t attempt to take anything from Samuels which, according to farmers in the area, made them rule out the motive of robbery. Samuels’ wife ran away to escape the killers and she was hit once with a machete – she was traumatized following the incident and declined comment to the press this morning.
Samuels, who owns this farm in Butcher Burns, was also a jeweler and did business across the city for many years. But according to the farmers in the area they believe it is his livestock business that motivated the killing. They say he would slaughter cattle on his farm and sell out of a small market he operated from the lower flat of his home. They say that Samuels’ livestock has been taking hit from thieves for quite a while and that several heads of cattle were stolen from Samuels’ pasture almost a year and a half ago. They allege that the matter is to go before the court in a few weeks and that he may have been killed because the thieves wanted to silence him to make the matter go away.
A police report from February 2016 corroborates the farmers’ report about stolen cattle on Samuels’ farm. In that report, Samuels told police that, on February 9th of last year, two live heifer cattle valued at one thousand eight hundred dollars were missing. In that police report, Samuels also told police that just a few weeks before he lost two more cattle – something that had been happening for years.
The farmers in Butcher Burns say that they remain in fear for their own safety and property. They believe that what has befallen Samuels can easily happen to them especially because the Butcher Burns area is remote. Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.
