American Tourist Beaten in Turks and Caicos, suspect out on bail

Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, March 24, 2024 – A tourist woman was left with severe bruises and possible visual impairment and hearing loss, after being beaten by a man, while on a birthday trip in the Turks and Caicos. 

The reason behind her assault is unknown, and it’s now public concern among Turks and Caicos residents as well as tourists, that there are people out there willing to physically abuse someone, especially to this degree. 

The victim, Suyapa Ramos from New Jersey, who describes fighting for her life, was interviewed on abc7NY and she detailed the events leading up to her assault.

She expressed she was at a bar the last night of her trip and after hours, ready to go back to her hotel, was trying to find a taxi with little luck.

“I believe after about 10, they (taxis) don’t run, and that was something that I found out the hard way.”

Ramos continued, highlighting that she met someone who said he was a taxi driver and took his word for it.  In fact, people at the bar seemingly knew the guy by the name of Davidson Martin, which to her was even more reason to trust she would be safe.

On their way to the hotel, she claimed he suddenly attacked her in the car, the scariest thing she’d ever had to encounter, she said. 

While Martin mercilessly beat Ramos, he reportedly made growling sounds, she explained in her interview.  And, contrasting to public opinion, Ramos says he didn’t make any sexual advances.

Fortunately Ramos, 48 years old, was able to escape and Martin, 29 years old, was arrested two days later. 

A police release informs that Ramos arrived at a health facility on Sunday March 10 and on March 13th, Martin was arrested by Safeguarding and Public Protection officers under sections 10 of the Offenses Against the Person Ordinance.

The release says he appeared before a Magistrate on March 15th, 2024, and charged with one count of Inflicting Grievous Bodily Harm. 

While officials have not commented publicly on the incident, the TCI public wants it to be known that the attacker was not a taxi driver. The man arrested, charged and released is an illegal jitney operator.

Illegal jitney drivers are not licensed and their drivers are unregistered and therefore unknown to the public service drivers’ regulator.

Warnings are currently in effect about use of these illegal modes of transport, despite their enormous popularity and convenience, especially to people who need to get around at night.

For the Turks and Caicos, a sought after tourist destination in the Caribbean, this is another stain on its reputation as the past two years has seen an increase in crime rate per capita, from low numbers, to numbers that now rival those of some of the most violent places in the world. 

Tourists are being attacked in their villas and just recently, a family was held at gunpoint, the father robbed of over $20,000 thousand dollars worth of cash and jewelry. 

Despite these unfortunate developments, the Turks and Caicos is seeing record breaking numbers in arrivals, up nearly 13 percent, for the first two months of 2024, according to a report by the Ministry of Tourism, released this week. 

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