Man shot dead in bed by masked intruder

As Godfrey Cumberbatch, his four-year-old daughter, and his girlfriend of ten years slept on a single bed in the early hours of Thursday morning, a lone gunman crept through the window of the bathroom, entered their room and pumped two bullets into the head of the 42-year-old Glen resident.

After the killer finished his execution,{{more}} he exited the house through another room, passing the dead man’s frightened mother and sister on his way out, and then fired two more shots before disappearing into the night.

SEARCHLIGHT visited Cumberbatch’s home yesterday, and found family members and friends gathered to comfort the grieving and still shaken occupants of the home.

Lois Antoine, Cumberbatch’s common-law girlfriend, told SEARCHLIGHT that she had gone to bed some time before 10 p.m. the night before, and left ‘Tyler’ as he was affectionately called, watching television.

She said she heard two loud bangs, and in-between sleep, thought it was the bedroom’s air conditioning unit acting up. She said that she then tried to get Godfrey to fix it.

“So I wake up and start touching him and telling him come and fix it, but I realise he not moving so I touch him again and then I ask him why he not studying me, so I kinda peep and then I saw blood starting to drip from his face, then I heard ‘bow, bow’ again and then I start to scream.”

Antoine said that when she realized what had happened, she grabbed her daughter who was snuggled up next to her father, then ran to the room where Tyler’s mother and sister were.

She said that she then called the police, who arrived shortly after.

Antoine took SEARCHLIGHT to the back of the two-bedroom house, and showed the approximately two by two bathroom window where it is believed that the killer gained entry into the house.

On the ground below the window was a concrete block, which it is believed that killer used to gain height to climb through the window.

It is believed that after the killer entered the house, he opened a door adjoining the room where Tyler was and shot him as he slept.

The shooter then opened another adjoining door to the other bedroom, where he came eye to eye with Tyler’s mother, Jean Laidlow.

Jean told SEARCHLIGHT that the gunman was clad in all black from head to toe, including gloves.

She said that as the man walked passed her she shouted at him.

“I said to him ‘who the hell is you? Did you kill my son?’

“Then he just open my bedroom door and walk out then close it back (the bedroom door), and when he come out he let go shots outside.”

Jean, surrounded by her sisters and other friends, said that the second of five children and father of four, did not deserve to die in the manner he did.

She acknowledged that her son had his run-ins with the law, but was not an aggressive person, and was well liked in his community.

“I can’t believe that Godfrey gone just like that. He was home all day watching cricket, and later he say he could drink some hot tea, and I boil some mint bush and he make a cup of tea, and he take some plantain and a piece of bread and he go in and he eat. When he done he bring out his plate and cup and then he went in and then he never come back out,” a teary-eyed Jean said.

In February this year, Cumberbatch along with five other men were arrested and charged with possession of over 2000 pounds of marijuana.

He was out on $100,000 bail, and was due to appear in court for a preliminary enquiry hearing next week Thursday, June 19.(JJ)