Diamond Village man shot dead while bursting bamboo

INSTEAD of lighting deyas to shed light over the darkness that is overshadowing TT, a Princes Town mother was preparing a wake and funeral for her son Rodney Charles who was gunned down in Picton Extension, Diamond Village, San Fernando on Saturday night.

Marie Mohan said after the pandemic limited gatherings over the past two years, this year she and one of her sisters planned to celebrate the occasion with family. She said Charles, the last of her nine children, was expected to attend with his family to join in the festivities.

Instead of doing preparation for the holiday on Monday, she spent Sunday consoling her daughter-in-law and grandson, while coming to terms with the circumstances surrounding the murder of her 32-year-old child.

“I can’t do nothing now. My son dead. They murder my son.”

Mohan believes her son was “set up” by people he knew.

“He was set up to be killed,” Mohan cried as she spoke to the Newsday at the Papourie Road, Diamond Village home of her late son, which he shared with his wife Sascha and their nine-year-old son.

She said this is the second attempt on her son’s life, but could not give a reason why people wanted him dead.

“I don’t know why they wanted to kill him, but I know it had nothing to do with drugs or money.”

She said at one time in his life, Charles sold and smoked marijuana, but he since stopped that trade, and was instead doing odd jobs to care for his family

She said, around eight o’clock on Saturday three men Charles knew invited him to “burst bamboo” at one of their homes in Picton Settlement where the murder happened. She said they got into Charles’ car and he took them to the site.

She said while she celebrates Divali, her son did not really partake in bamboo bursting, one of the traditions associated with Divali. She said he did not even venture in that area where he was killed.

Eyewitnesses, she said, told the family when Charles got to the bamboo-bursting site, one of the men who travelled with him told him to get out of there.

“Five minutes before the gunmen arrived, one of the fellas told him to ‘go, go from here.’

“There was no argument, no altercation before they told him to go from there.”

She said Charles was taken aback by the strange request and did not move from the bonnet of his car on which he was seated.

She said a ten-year-old boy, who was bursting bamboo with them, was also told to get into his father’s car and hide.

Around 9.45 pm, two masked men, wearing hoodies, arrived on the scene, approached Charles and fired shots directly at him, hitting him on the face and head.

He died on the spot. An eye-witness said between ten and 15 shots were fired to his head.

A stray bullet, also pierced the right arm of a 30-year-old Picton Settlement man. He was treated at hospital and discharged.

Commenting on the spiraling, out-of-control crime pervading the country, Mohan blamed it on the lack of law enforcement

“The law is to be blamed,” she told Newsday.

She said while murders are occurring every day, they are not being solved as quickly. She said in the Picton community, where her son was murdered on Saturday night, six people were killed over a short period in separate incidents, but no one has been held in connection with any of these murders to date.

She called for the killings to stop saying the blood money gunmen are getting to kill would not last for long.

“It’s sad. They pick up my son and carry him to his death. I want to tell the gunmen who were paid to kill him, that money would be of no value to them.

“God will deal with them. My tears won’t fall far.”

Homicide Region 111 is continuing investigations.