Gang burst into Caribbean wedding reception and shoot groom dead while holding bride at gunpoint - 'over £60 debt'

 
Murder: Dameion Cousins and his wife Jacqueline at the wedding
18/10/130 1st ed Dameion Cousins and his wife Jacqueline from Hornsey, North London pictured on their wedding day - hours later Dameion was shot dead. See SWNS story SWWEDDING: A woman has spoken of the brutal murder of her husband - at their wedding rece
Kiran Randhawa18 October 2013
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A traumatised bride has told how her new husband was brutally murdered at their wedding reception.

Londoner Jacqueline Cousins, 49, thought her life was complete when she tied the knot with fiance Dameion Cousins, 31, in an idyllic ceremony in the Caribbean.

But hours later an armed gang burst into the reception claiming the groom owned them $10,000 Jamaican dollars - just £60.

They held the bride at gunpoint while Dameion was shot in the head outside in the driveway.

Family support worker Jacqueline, from Hornsey, North London, said she has no idea why the gang targeted her husband.

She said: “I started screaming and screaming and I could not believe what I was seeing.

“I lay down next to him and I put my head on his chest. I realised he was dead.

“We were just two people who really loved each other and had taken that move to be together and just a few hours later this is what I was dealing with.”

Jacqueline first met Dameion - a songwriter and performer - when she visited her parent’s home in Jamaica 11 years ago.

The couple did not begin dating until seven years later when Jacqueline’s marriage fell apart.

After a long-distance romance Dameion proposed on New Year’s Day in 2012 and the pair married in an intimate ceremony at his home in Hart Hill, Jamaica, in July this year.

“It was absolutely beautiful,” said Jacqueline.

“There was a red carpet, and just 17 people there including us, with twinkling fairy lights.

“I had picked flowers from my mother’s garden and Dameion had made beautiful pathway with them.

“I had never seen him so happy.”

The reception was also held at the property and Dameion briefly left towards the end of the evening to drop his two daughters back to their mother’s house.

Jacqueline and her mother-in-law Dorothy, 80, were chatting in an upstairs bedroom when two thugs burst in and demanded to know “where is the Rasta?”.

They claimed he owed them cash and one of the intruders went in search of valuables.

But at that moment Dameion pulled into the drive and the women heard a number of gunshots before the gunmen scarpered.

Distraught Jacqueline discovered her new husband had been shot in the head and neck.

Recalling the attack, she said: “I was so frightened I could barely lift my head to look at them.

“I told them that he was not there, that they could take what they wanted, but it all happened to quickly.”

Police arrested two men following the brutal attack, but released them without charge and no one has ever been caught or prosecuted.

The newlyweds planned to return to London so Jacqueline could continue work and Dameion could get a job.

Mother-of-seven Jacqueline, who returned to London in August, said: “I just want answers.

“The two men who killed my husband are still out there.

“Everybody loved Dameion. He got on with everyone. I think it was simply jealousy that he might have left the country and had a life with me.”

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