Shot man dies while wall is painted

HEARTLESS. This was how relatives of Nicholas Antoine described his colleagues who continued with their painting job minutes after he was fatally shot along Broadway in Port of Spain on Sunday.

“These men who worked side by side with my brother, have no heart,” said one of Antoine’s 12 siblings yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James. “These are people who he worked with for years. They were supposed to down tools and try to get him to a hospital. But they didn’t do anything. Nothing at all.”

Antoine, 22, of Farm Road in Richplain, Diego Martin was killed at about 3.10 pm. At the time, he was working near some scaffolding near Maraj and Sons Jewellers when two gunmen got out of a Toyota Rav 4, and shot him multiple times before getting back in to the SUV which sped off. Antoine lay on the pavement where he bled to death, while according to relatives, his co-workers continued painting on the scaffolding.

After police cordoned off the area, processed the scene and removed the body, Antoine’s co-workers returned to their painting as if nothing had happened, went back onto the scaffolding and finished their paint job. Antoine’s eldest sister said she heard of his death on social media while she was at her San Juan home.

“As soon as I heard about it, I jumped up and grabbed my child and ran to town. It real hurt me to see my brother lying like a dog on the ground. I called out to one of the workers there to ask him what happened and they would not even speak to me. They just turned their face and went back to work,” she said. Other relatives described him as a hard-working young man who was the third of 12 children.

“He liked to work,” said his sister. “He would work from Sunday to Sunday. The only place he would go to is to a bar in Richplain Road. He was always friendly and never interfered with anybody.” While police said they had no motive for the killing, relatives believe Antoine’s murder was a case of mistaken identity.