“Ten more days and you will be home, babes”.
Those parting words, preceded by a customary kiss, were uttered to Darwin Downes around 3:30 p.m. last Sunday when he was dropped off at the Regional Police Training Centre after a one-day break from his schedule.
Little did Katrina Coleman know that it would be the last exchange with her boyfriend of two and a half years.
Downes allegedly used an M16 firearm to take his life. That shot to the head brought a shattering end to what she described as the “perfect romance” and a lifelong dream.
The former Best Recruit at the Barbados Defence Force and one of the better recruits on the course according to a senior police source, was scheduled to begin his career as a police officer after the passing-out parade and graduation ceremony set for next week Wednesday.
When a DAILY NATION team visited the family yesterday afternoon, Coleman was quick to deny suggestions that Downes was experiencing “domestic problems”.
“We good. Everything was good. We didn’t have any problems,” Coleman insisted, adding that the two were making wedding plans.
