Brother of slain jewellery store worker laments: Cowardly killers

ANDY Alberto Macias-Hosein was a university lecturer who left his homeland of Venezuela to seek a better life for his wife and son in Trinidad.

On Saturday, he was killed at his workplace, a jewellery store, on High Street, San Fernando.

Macias-Hosein earned US$3 a month in Venezuela. He graduated with a BSc in Spanish, Literature, Latin with a speciality in Greek mythology and was awaiting accreditation to get a teaching position in TT.

While he waited, he did jobs where ever he found them to support his family back home.

On Sunday, his brother Kenny said that was what he was doing on Saturday when he was shot in the back by the men who robbed Ketan Jewellers.

“The human body is trained to do two things: stand still or run. My brother chose to run, he did not do anything wrong, and for that he was killed. Shot in the back by a coward.”

He said Macias-Hosein was no threat to anyone.

“Andy was not a bad person. He was just trying to make an honest dollar.”

The four men who entered the High Street business place, smashed a showcase and escaped with an undisclosed amount of jeweller, killing Macias-Hosein in the process.

One man from La Romaine has been held as the search continues for the others.

The Hosein brothers were born in Venezuela, to a Venezuelan father and Trinidadian mother who died in 2015. They had dual citizenship.

Hosein said his brother has been coming here for years, spending months away from his wife, Denise-Ley and their son, Francisco Abraham Macias, 7.

“Every night when he came from work, he would go on WhatsApp and talk to his family and read a story for his son.”

On Saturday night when Macias-Hosein did not call, “Francisco asked his mummy why his daddy did not call.”

He said the child broke down in tears when told what happened to his father.

“They are in shock. They are in a mess over there. My father, he is 78, he is distraught.

“He (Macias-Hosein) was planning to return to Venezuela in April, spend a few months with his wife and child, and return to TT in August/September.”

He said when the autopsy was done, funeral arrangements will be finalised. “He will be buried here. He always said where ever he dies bury him right there.”