CARENAGE CURFEW

THE Carenage community of Sea View Terrace is now in a self-imposed curfew as residents fear gunmen who fired at limers on the Chaguaramas boardwalk on Sunday, killing three and wounding five, will invade their area to attack those associated with two of the murder victims.

This was revealed by residents of Sea View Terrace to leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah who visited the area yesterday in the wake of the deadly shooting. The residents said their community is gripped with fear as the killers remain at large.

They slammed their MP, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley (Diego Martin West), for not even visiting after the triple murder to commiserate with the families of Kedel Osborne and Fabien Williams who along with Andrew Francis were shot dead on the boardwalk.

For his part, Abdulah said he was deeply saddened by the murders and expressed support to the relatives and the wider Carenage community during this turbulent time. The residents also had a question for the police. Is a government minister’s son cellphone worth more than the lives of the three men?

They asked this as they demanded that police use all of their resources and all of their efforts to apprehend the gunmen who remain at large. Carenage resident Christopher Calder blasted leaders and senior police for what he said was their apparent lack of interest in the case and called on residents to do their part in reporting crimes.

FIND THE KILLERS

Calder expressed his outrage that the police used hi-tech resources to find a cellphone on Monday night which was stolen last Friday from Adrian Imbert, son of Finance Minister Colm Imbert. He said such agencies would be better used trying to find killers. After Imbert’s phone was stolen when he was held up by two bandits after his pick-up van stalled in Laventille , police from two elite units worked around the clock and on Monday evening, found the $5,000 cellphone in the Beetham.

The phone hunt involved very senior police from the Port of Spain Division, with National Security Minister Edmund Dillon monitoring developments. This kind of diligence by the police, is what the Carenage residents are calling for in the case of the boardwalk triple murder.

Calder also pointed out to a lack of employment opportunities in Carenage prompting youths to commit crimes. He urged leaders to invest in the community to restore peace and order. “If they can go on the boardwalk to shoot and kill so many innocent people, they can go anywhere and shoot.

“As soon as a group of people are killed, they keep having meetings with the National Security Council and making fools of us. People are dying out here every day. We don’t want these children to grow up and learn about the cycle of gun violence.

“I am here as a concerned citizen living in Carenage. I want this thing that is taking place in the community to stop. I am calling on my brothers and all who are involved to stop it, because if the police cannot do their job, it will not stop. Let us face reality and nip this thing at the bud.”

SHOPS CLOSING EARLY

On Sunday, Francis, Osborne and Williams were killed by gunmen who came specifically for Williams but chose to shoot into a crowd of limers on the boardwalk. Five others, including an eight-year-old boy, were shot and all are still in hospital.

Because Williams was reputed to be a member of a gang in Sea View, residents there are fearful the gunmen will come into their community intent on further bloodshed. Resident and MSJ activist Errol Burke said the community has been under an informal curfew since the murders, as residents are afraid of being outside after dark.

Burke said, “I came to the junction at around 9 o’clock last night. There are three businesses there and by 8 pm all of them were closed. I was walking the streets, talking to the people. They said they try to have all of their errands done by 6 pm so they are home by night time.

“We are imprisoning ourselves. We are under our own curfew. The police have their jobs to do.” Burke lamented the absence of routine police patrols in the area and called on authorities to step up operations to quell escalating violence.