Parents condemn son after robbery: We're glad God took him

A Fyzabad couple did not mince words in describing their dead son’s “selfish” act that left two people dead and one fighting for her life at the hospital.

Displeased with his behaviour in the final moments of his life, Deaundre Montrose’s mother said she was glad that he was dead.

“God knows why he took my son. I am glad God took him. He might have survived, and we do not know what would have happened down the road. If this boy had survived, to live that kind of life, I as a mother, would not have been able to live with that.”

“I am grieving for him, but he paid the price for what he did. He was part of it. This will not happen again. He is not around. He had no right to be there in the first place!”

The bereaved mother of two asked not to be named.

“The family did not have a clue he was involved in something like this. In our eyes, we did our best. We are in shock,” she said and offered condolences to the victim’s family.

Montrose’s dad, who did not give his name, expressed anger and grief.

The father said he did not detect “that part” of his son’s life.

He said he focused more on the victim’s families than on his son’s death.

“We do not approve of what he did. This is not about my son. It is about these innocent people who left their homes, expecting to return to their loved ones. He left people wanting. My son was part and parcel of that incident,” the father said.

“My son was not supposed to be part of making the country worse by contributing to crime. He was not a ten-year-old to be influenced easily. He was a man of 22 years. His action does not reflect the family’s values. He was selfish for doing it.”

Montrose was supposed to start work next month. Relatives did not say the type of work or where. Montrose recently took a drug test and was awaiting a character certificate from the police.

The father showed the drug test results, which showed Montrose had no drugs in his system.

Montrose did not have any criminal records, nor had the family received wind of him being involved in illegal activities.

His father said, “I treated him as an adult. We trust that he behaved responsibly outside if he was going out with friends. The onus is on him. If he wants to live such a life, he must pay for it. He had to pay the price.”

Montrose’s father said illegal items were never brought to his house, “not once!”

Newsday also visited the homes of the three others who were killed in the police shootout.

But relatives of Kyle Ramdhan and his brother Keyon Ramdhan declined to comment.

South Western Division police said Kyle was on bail, charged with attempted murder. The case was pending in the Siparia magistrate court. Keyon was also suspected of being part of several shootings in the Fyzabad area.

Like Montrose, Greg Dodough did not have a criminal record.

Three security officers employed with Allied Security were leaving Pennywise Plaza, La Romaine, in a van on Monday when gunmen ambushed and shot them.

Jerry “Bat” Stuart, 49, and Jeffery Peters, 51, died, while Peola Baptiste, 57, survived. She was still in critical condition at the hospital up to Wednesday evening.

Two other people, a 47-year-old security guard from another company and a nine-year-old boy from Siparia, were also injured.

Their injuries were not life-threatening.

After the shooting, the gunmen fled in a white car. They burnt the car along the M2 Ring Road.

They then used the van belonging to a soldier to try to flee from the police. But the police went to another area in La Romaine, where a shootout ensued, leaving the four dead.

The police later held two suspects from Arouca.

The van owner who works nearby at Camp Setterre was later detained as a person of interest.

The police also recovered the undisclosed cash, guns, including two AR-15 rifles, bulletproof vests, and boots.

On Wednesday night, senior police said investigators believed one of the vests belonged to a South Western Division policeman.

No more information was given about its owner, with police saying the investigation is “active.”