One of the teenage sons of Canada’s former ambassador to Zimbabwe, Roxanne Dube , Jean Wabafiyebazu, 17, was last week shot dead in gun battle and during an apparent drug deal gone bad in Miami and his brother is in custody charged with felony murder.
The boys’ father, the Zimbabwean Germano Wabafiyebazu, said he and his estranged wife are “devastated” at the news.
Wabafiyebazu is separated from Dube and still lives in Ottawa. He told the Canadian Sun paper, he wanted his kids Marc, 15, and Jean, 17, to stay with him while Dube accepted her latest diplomatic post.
He said his estranged wife, Canadian Consul General Roxanne Dube, told him she feels guilty for taking their children to Florida with her two months ago.
Wabafiyebazu said he was told his sons borrowed their mom’s black BMW, with diplomatic licence plates, around 2 p.m. Monday and went off to meet someone in the hopes of buying marijuana. He says he was aware Jean struggled with substance abuse.
“They had a project to go and buy marijuana,” he said.
They met “an intermediary” who told them a home to go to where the weed could be bought, Germano said.
“Miami is different,” he said. “Roxanne was not aware of anything.”
He’s not sure what went down in the home in Florida — some sort of disagreement — which led to Jean being fatally shot. He said Marc was waiting in the car and when he heard the shots, Marc rushed into the house and fired two warning shots in the air in an attempt to attract attention and summon police.
“My son saw his brother dead,” he said.
Police arrived soon after, and arrested Marc at the scene for felony murder. Under Florida law, anyone involved in a crime in which a murder is committed could also face a felony murder charge. According to an arrest report obtained by the Miami Herald, Marc is facing additional charges after threatening to shoot a detective while at police headquarters.
Television footage from the scene in the Coral Gables district showed a large pool of blood on the floor of the multi-unit dwelling and one of the victims being wheeled into an ambulance.
Police believe Marc and Jean — both allegedly armed with guns — planned to rob the drug dealers.
 
 
Marc Wabafiyebazu on trial
Meanwhile the brother Marc, is now due to appear in the juvenile court on April 8.
Authorities say he would not be protected by diplomatic immunity.
Dube and her family, meanwhile, expressed condolences to the family of Joshua Wright, the other deceased victim, and said they just want to be there for the younger son.
“Your grief is our grief,” she said. “We can only hope that, in time, we will find common purpose towards diminishing the causes of such violent crimes. For now, we just want to be there for Marc, our incredibly caring son who loved his brother very much, and to say goodbye, ever so tenderly and quietly to Jean, our love.”
The Miami Police Department has not commented on the shootings. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office confirmed that another man, 19-year-old Anthony Rodriguez, was charged with second-degree murder and marijuana possession with intent to sell for his alleged role. The Rodriguez arrest report says a second man was shot to death inside the house. Prosecutors also said Rodriguez was wounded in the arm in the shootout.
The police report also quotes unidentified witnesses as saying Rodriguez brought two pounds of marijuana to the house and began to negotiate.
“During the negotiations, both deceased victims became involved in an exchange of gunfire,” the report says.
In addition, Marc Wabafiyebazu faces charges of threatening a police officer while in custody, according to a separate police report. The boy is alleged to have said “he was going to kill (a detective) and that he would shoot him in the head.”
Germano Wabafiyebazu said he and Dube were divorced a few years ago and that their son Jean struggled with substance abuse.
Dube just started her job as consul general in Miami in February. She was previously Canada’s ambassador to Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2008 and also served as a staff member for a Canadian Liberal cabinet minister for more than a decade. (Sun/ Guardian/Agencies).