Ells relatives: We do not know why he was killed

The family of slain dental technician Ewart ‘Ells’ King say that there is not much closure, with the killing of the man suspected of being their relative’s murderer.{{more}}

Stephanie Seales, mother of the 57-year-old King, who was killed in his Pembroke home on the early morning of Sunday, December 4, stated that she was somewhat satisfied, but would have preferred if Ells’ suspected killer Godwin Moses was brought in alive so he could explain why he killed her son.

“If the gun that they find with the man is Ells gun, well I am satisfied because I will believe he is the one who kill Ells; but if the gun is not Ells own, well I don’t believe is he kill Ells and the person might still be out there on the loose and would be able to kill somebody else.”

Seales, who spoke to SEARCHLIGHT from her Calliaqua home on Tuesday, December 12, had returned from New York just three days earlier, along with some brothers and sisters of the man who was loved by all who knew him.

Accompanied by some of Ells’ sisters in the family living room, the matriarch, affectionately known as ‘mom’, ‘tanty’ or ‘granny’, reminisced on her first, son; the third of her 12 living children, whom she described as ‘a very good boy’, who would give away his and even her last dollar to someone in need.

“When I go away, he will take my things and give them to people. He even take my bed and send it to Union Island. When I come and miss my bed I ask him what happen to me bed, he tell me he lend Mr. Daniel. Ah say ‘Ells people does lend out bed?’ He say ‘Mammy, if he did ask you, you woulda lend him too.”

His sisters who were present joined in and gave accounts of their big brother’s kindheartedness, recounting times when he would visit their New York homes and request their assistance in purchasing items for needy children not only in his Pembroke community, but from far wide around the island.

“He treated everyone as if they were family. He would go and shop for poor people who couldn’t buy books and uniforms.”

“He was the kind of person who would come to New York and say ‘I need some money’ because this or that person can’t afford to buy books; so buy me some book bags so I can give these kids to go back to school.”

“I know all those kids he usually helped wouldn’t have it to go back to school because he is not here; there is a void left, not only for his family but all those kids that he helped.

According to Seales, the death of Ells, who was the father of more than a dozen children of his own, came as a huge blow to her, her children and the many friends he had made over the decades.

She indicated that as early as she received the news that Ells was brutally shot and stabbed in his home, she received calls as far as the United Kingdom, offering condolences and support.

Moments after the news broke that Ells had been killed, the family gathered at her Brooklyn home to lend support to each other.

One sister noted that the family was a tight-knit one that will continue to support and show love to Ells’ family, as they had done when he was alive.

His siblings, who were present at the home, agreed that they would have been satisfied with hearing from their brother’s suspected killer the reason for taking the life of their beloved brother.

“We felt that they needed to capture that guy and question him at least to find out why he did what he did; we would have liked to know the reason… but now he is dead; Ells is dead.

“There is no closure. We do not know why he was killed.”

Moses, who escaped from Her Majesty’s Prisons in Kingstown on November 21, died on Sunday, December 11, in Happy Hill, Layou, while attempting to escape a police stop and search, after he was ordered to exit a passenger van he was riding in.

Police believe that Moses broke into Ells’ home on Sunday, December 4, and killed the man regarded as the neighborhood watchman, before escaping with his gun.

Ells’ funeral is expected to take place today at the St. Paul’s Anglican church in Calliaqua, located just yards away from where he grew up, and according to one of his sisters, he was an altar server.

He will be buried in the church yard, beside his father Frank Seales.