Golden Vale man dies after being shot by masked gunmen

Chesley Dewer had arrived at his Golden Vale home only minutes before he was showered with bullets while sitting in his porch, last Saturday night.

The 32-year-old father of a four-year-old boy and stepfather of an eight-year-old girl, died on his way to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.{{more}}

Residents of the area say the man, who operated a snackette in Calliaqua, was shot multiple times by two masked, hooded men some time after 9 p.m.

After the men had carried out the execution, they used a footpath next to the house to make a getaway.

SEARCHLIGHT visited Dewer’s neighbourhood yesterday, where emotions were running high, as family members and friends gathered. They were visually hurt and upset by the fact that Dewer, affectionately known as “Puppy,” had been killed.

Joanna Hoyte, Dewer’s girlfriend of seven years, told SEARCHLIGHT that Dewer had just finished eating a meal, and had decided to go outside and relax, a regular routine he had on evenings.

“I took the children to Uncle Skinny. I just got home and I was showing him one of the performances that I taped… and we were discussing things concerning the home, the shop, and dem children… and he went outside to chill a while. He had just finished eating….

“I was going to go outside and then I tell him I am going to lie down.

Then, about five minutes after, everything took place. I heard the shots…. I scream out and I was crying,” Hoyte recounted.

Dewer was hit several times as he sat in a plastic chair in his porch.

Neighbours recall hearing two initial explosions, followed by a barrage of shots that rocked the usually quiet community.

The unsuspecting victim was hit about the body, including two bullets to the chest, and one shot that almost severed his left foot at the ankle.

A number of bullets penetrated the wooden house, with one lodging just centimetres from where his stepdaughter lay on her bed, fast asleep.

Dewer stumbled out of the porch, before collapsing in the yard under a palm tree.

Two houses away, Puppy’s mother Verna Dewer said she heard the gunshots, but was not aware of what was taking place until she heard her fourth of seven children calling for help.

Verna said that her other children kept the fact that Puppy had died from her, because they felt that it would make her declining health condition worse.

Part of her left foot and her right leg have been amputated as a result of diabetes.

“He called to me when he was lying on the ground down there; he was calling to me. He say ‘ma, me get shot, come help me, somebody shoot me.’

“I tell him I can’t come, and a neighbour next door came to his assistance and called other people to help and everybody get together and helped him.”

Dewer was transported to the hospital in his own vehicle by a neighbour. Unfortunately, he died before they arrived.

One neighbour told SEARCHLIGHT that while Dewer lay on the ground and while he was being transported to the hospital, he was asked repeatedly who did he think would harm him; to which he replied that he had no issues with anyone.

SEARCHLIGHT, however, was informed that Dewer was recently threatened, and had reported the matter to the police.

His family members described the well built man, who was a carpenter by profession, as a plain-minded individual, who would have arguments, but was never violent.

“He had things that might upset him and he would come out and tell you how it is, but he would not get in any violence with nobody; he is the kind of person who would come out and talk he mind and done with that. If he and anybody get in argument he would tell you what he have to and that’s it,” Orlando Dewer, Puppy’s older brother said.

Verna, the family matriarch, said that the family and neighbours were trying to deal with Dewer’s death as best as they could, and were trying to find the answers as to who would kill their beloved “Puppy” and why.

“I quite upset, but what could I do?

“We don’t want to take it on…. I don’t want to take it on, but every time I remember him….” Verna lamented. (JJ)