Grieving relatives demand justice

DAYS after Sherard Garraway was beaten to death metres from his cousin’s Hingoo Trace, El Socorro home, his parents Zainool and Jennifer Ali are calling for justice.

Newsday visited the family’s home yesterday morning and spoke with the Alis who said they are deeply pained by their son’s murder and are concerned over the apparent lack of interest by police.

Members of the Homicide Investigations Bureau were not called on to investigate the circumstances behind Garraway’s death until hours after his body was found on Tuesday morning.

Garraway, 33, worked as a wheel alignment technician at the Edinburgh Auto Shop in Chaguanas. Relatives said he left home Monday afternoon to borrow $200 from his cousin in El Socorro and then visited a nearby bar where he watched the final match of the Caribbean Premier League.

Around midnight on Monday, CCTV cameras along Hingoo Lane recorded footage of Garraway being beaten by two men.

Garraway’s parents said they could not understand why anyone would want to kill their son. An autopsy confirmed Garraway died from severe injury to the brain caused by blows to his head.

“If it was a robbery they could have just taken the money and left him alone.

I saw the footage. He didn’t fight back or anything.

He was such a hard-working, kind-hearted young man. A few of his family were in the bar where he watched the game. He didn’t get drunk or get in an altercation with anyone so it’s not to say that he brought this on himself,” father Zainool Ali said.

Ali also questioned why officers of the homicide bureau did not take his son’s bloody clothes for testing and says he was given the clothes by hospital officials after his son was pronounced dead.

For her part, Jennifer Ali called on officers to thoroughly investigate the matter and says no mother should have to endure such trauma. Newsday understands that officers of the North Eastern Division are continuing inquiries into the murder. Garraway was buried at the El Socorro Muslim cemetery yesterday.