
Updated: September 3, 2012
The end result for the Campus Trendz fire deaths turned out pretty much like we predicted two years ago: murder charge, guilty plea to manslaughter – but no real changes at all.
Bajan daughters and sons still work in downtown death traps with no way out, we still don’t have a Building Code as law and the equipment deficiencies at the Fire Service mean that if Campus Trendz happened again today, the same brave crying raging men who had to use manual sledge hammers to beat through the brick behind Campus Trendz would still be using manual sledge hammers – because it’s all they have.

UPDATED: September 13, 2010 – Murder Charges laid, accused named
Jamar Dewayne Orlando Bynoe, 19, Headley’s Land, Bank Hall (left)
Renaldo Anderson Alleyne, 21, Prescod Bottom, Hindsbury Road. (right)
Both young men are charged with the Murder of six young women at Campus Trendz, wounding with intent and arson in relation to the same happening. (Photos of accused courtesy of Barbados Today unless we hear from them otherwise)
Also charged with earlier petrol bombing of Chicken Galore
Bynoe and Alleyne are charged with aggravated burglary and arson at Chicken Galore at Bank Hall, St Michael, on August 13, 2010 three weeks before the September 3rd Campus Trendz murders.
Here is our original story published September 11, 2010 at 11:33pm Bridgetown time…

Barbados is still a small island with no place to run
Reports on radio and on the website of The Nation indicate that two men from Barbados are “assisting the police with their investigations” as of Saturday afternoon.
If we had to lay a bet on how this came about, we’d say that someone knew something and made a phone call that broke the case. A name, often given anonymously, is all it takes. That’s just our speculation at this point, but as we’ve said before, Barbados is a small island and smaller still if a normal criminal* is on the run after committing a horrific crime. That’s one of the things that helps to make this island relatively safe and much safer than many other countries.
If the two under arrest are the ones who robbed, chopped and then set the Campus Trendz shop on fire, their capture is some small comfort to the families of the six victims and the community – but really just one of the many steps that should happen in the coming months and years.
That’s “many steps that should happen”, but you know how it is here and so do we.
Our predictions for the Campus Trendz murder case… Continue reading →