Trinidad and Tobago: 27-year-old man killed after fight between girlfriend and ex turns deadly

Trinidad and Tobago: What started as a tense shouting match on the corner of George and Prince Streets quickly spiraled into chaos on Sunday morning, leaving 27-year-old Michael “Boy Boy” Francis dead and his ex-girlfriend detained by the authorities.

According to sources, the fatal stabbing incident took place at the corner of George and Prince Streets around 11:00 a.m. on October 5 after an argument erupted between Francis’ girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend, Shantelle Noel.

The fight quickly escalated to vigorous shouting and cursing at each other for five minutes before Francis intervened by attacking Noel and kicking her in the chest.

Noel quickly drew a box cutter and stabbed him once in the right side of the chest before fleeing the scene, running along George Street leaving Francis fatally stabbed and his girlfriend nursing his wounds on the streets.

Residents quickly rushed Francis, kept him in a vehicle and took him to the Port of Spain General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 11:30 a.m.

Following the killing, angry residents raided Noel’s apartment at Nelson Street, tossing her belongings into the street in a show of fury over Francis’s death.

Noel remained on the run until 6 October, when the police captured her and detained her in connection to the fatal stabbing that led to Francis’s death on Sunday morning, as she awaits a court date.

Although sources argue that Francis was the aggressor in the incident because Noel only stabbed him after he attacked and kicked her in the chest, making the fatal stabbing making it an act of self-defense.

While the case still remains under investigations, citizens of Trinidad and Tobago have taken to Facebook to argue in Noel’s defence that she did what she did as self defence. With one user writing, “He kicked the girl in her chest .. she defended herself." While another wrote, “Total self defense. She will need to move away from that community. Far far away.”