Mom: I hope he pulls through

Eleeza Cust, mother of murder victims Jordan Archibald and Dimitri Cust, is praying her son Marlon Cust will survive his injuries. She said reports showed he had been shot ten times.

Archibald, 16, Dimitri, 19, and their cousin Nyron Samuel, 24, were shot to death early Thursday morning while sleeping at their home in Muller Trace, Demerara Road, Wallerfield. Marlon, 28, who is autistic, is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.

The four were shot at 1 am after two masked men climbed through a window at the rear of the two-room house. They asked an eyewitness, “Where they boys and them?” Two of the men were sleeping in one room on a foam mattress on the floor, one on a couch and another on the lower bunk of a double-decker bed. The blood-soaked mattress was outside the house when Newsday went to the scene on Thursday. There was other evidence of the crime on the floor and the bunk bed. One person was heard telling a relative,”Wash down the mattress and don’t let the blood set in.”

Eleeza said Marlon was not breathing on his own and is on a ventilator. She said there was a feud a few years ago when her cousin had a workshop where her boys would lime.

“There was a fight from up the road to down the road. They pick up cutlass to chop the guy and a child end up getting chop on his head – and that is where everything escalated from. That matter is still in court.” Another relative said Archibald had dropped out of school a few years ago.

“He saw his cousin drown about eight years ago and he really take it on. He would say he seeing him and he would be talking to him. He was never the same after that.” Eleeza said her mother, who is 76, is still traumatised by the incident. “She couldn’t even remember her name. I had to take her to the toilet this morning.”

Eleeza said Jordan had been threatened before, but never thought it would end like this. She said she was seeking help to bury her sons and nephew. She needs clothes for the bodies and any other assistance anyone could contribute.

She has been in contact with Arima mayor Lisa Morris-Julian, Arima MP Anthony Garcia and Social Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis. “They have been assisting me, and I am grateful.”

Eleeza said the funeral will be a joint one on January 22 at Allen’s Chapel, Arima, and then to D’Abadie Public Cemetery. The time is yet to be confirmed.