Mayor: Pt Fortin shocked by triple murder

THE murder of three men from Point Fortin has left the close-knit community of Fanny Village, where they lived, in shock.

Point Fortin mayor Abdon Mason said he too is saddened by the brutality of their deaths under curious circumstances in Penal on Sunday night, because he knew the three men.

The bodies of David “Fitz” Critchlow, 35, Anton Darrel Soodeen, 35, and Maverick Marcano, 38, were found in Soodeen’s silver Mazda 3 sedan at Fazal Avenue, Penal. The trio all had gunshot wounds. Marcano was recently released from prison.

“I knew all of them. It is quite sad. I really feel it for their parents,” Mason told the Newsday yesterday.

“It seems as though our society no longer has any appreciation for the gift of life when persons can just cold-bloodedly take other people’s life just like that. It really makes you wonder if there is any appreciation for the gift that God has given us called life.

“It is really sad, really heartbreaking, because it is three families from a close-knit community that must now lay their loved ones to rest and under circumstances nobody could really comprehend.”

He said he visited the Soodeen family to express his condolences and would visit each family, “because it is really a difficult time they are going through. The whole community is shaken up because to lose one is really heartbreaking, but to lose three like this is quite devastating.”
The grief, he said, has extended to the borough corporation, where Critchlow worked as a labourer.

“So even within the corporation pool, people who were working with him, they are heartbroken. They are jolted by this whole situation, because he was a simple, fun-loving guy, worked normal like others, crack a joke and everybody would laugh. To wake to that reality (triple murder) yesterday morning was quite surreal.”

Police investigating the killings are seeking the public’s help in finding a motive. No one has been held.

Mason said he had no idea why the three went to Penal or what led to their deaths.

“There is an old adage that dead men tell no tales and they go to their graves with their stories. One can only speculate.

“I knew Mr Soodeen very well. He operated as a ‘PH’ taxi driver in Point Fortin. One can only guess that maybe he was given a hire job by one of the occupants to take them where they were killed.”

Mason also speculated, “There must be something which took them to that particular area for them to lose their lives like that.”

He said he hopes the police find the perpetrators soon.

Anyone with information on Sunday’s triple murder can contact the Homicide Bureau at 652-0495, the nearest police station or Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith at 482-GARY (4279).