Bon Air community in fear after double murder: 57 BULLETS FOR TEENS

GREGORY MCBURNIE

Residents in Bon Air Gardens, Arouca say they are living in fear after gunmen killed two teens at a neighbourhood parlour on Tuesday night and another man was attacked, shot and chopped on Wednesday morning.

In the first incident, Anim Persad, 15, of Emerald Circular and Olun Jones, 18, were shot dead by multiple gunmen in front of a neighbourhood parlour, a popular place for children in the community to gather.

Police say they found 57 spent shells at the scene, the majority from high-calibre automatic rifles.

Hours after that, a man several streets away was shot and chopped while leaving for work on Wednesday morning.

The man was closing his gate when he was confronted by several men.

He tried to run but was shot and fell to the ground.

The gunmen stood over him, prepared to shoot him at point-blank range but the gun jammed, and neighbours reported hearing the trigger being pulled repeatedly.

His assailants then pulled out a cutlass and chopped him several times.

His life was spared when a neighbour fired several shots into the air from his licensed firearm, causing the attackers to flee.

When Newsday visited the area, it was a ghost town. No children were playing in the street and most people stayed indoors.

The few Bon Air Gardens residents who spoke with us did so on the condition of anonymity.

One resident said, “This is the devil’s work…When I heard the shots, I throw myself on the ground because I swear it was in my backyard. I swear is my whole house get shoot up.”

One described Persad and Jones as ambitious and helpful. Another said they were “nice children.”

“They used to pick coconuts and sell, and people will help them out around the neighbourhood (and buy from them).”

Persad was a student at Diego Martin Secondary while Jones was a former cadet of the Military-led Academic Training Programme (MiLAT).

Persad’s family was unwilling to speak to the media, but one relative said, “Maybe he shouldn’t have gone to the shop, he should have stayed home.”

Newsday was unable to locate Jones' family. In a video that went viral on social media after his murder, Jones spoke about his upbringing.

He said, “I never really had luxurious things, I never had material things, and I never had food. My father wasn’t around, and there was a lot of negative influences around (me).”

He admitted being in trouble before but said he had turned his life around.

“My mother passed away from pulmonary fibrosis, and she passed right in front of my eye. That was the greatest traumatic experience that I ever encountered, that I feel I will ever encounter. That hurt me dearly. From there, everything started to go downhill. I have been from institution to institution to institution. And I truly needed this intervention. I truly needed this programme, the MiLAT programme.”

“MiLAT has shown me that I have been surviving the wrong way, the way that I've been taught from the streets. And I now know that I don't have to survive.

“I can live my life and not survive. I don't have to fight everyone. Everyone is not fighting me. The MiLAT programme is a very good programme…The MiLAT programme can help give you a firm foundation in life. MiLAT is a good choice.”

In a telephone interview on Wednesday night, one of Jones’ relatives said he abandoned the MiLAT programme three months ago.

“He left MiLAT because he wanted to pursue music.”

She said he became affiliated with a gang, hoping to advance his music career. She said Jones told her he had seen gang members becoming successful in the music industry and he wanted that same success. She said he had recorded several songs.

A community in fear

Residents say they no longer feel safe, and despite it being once a commonplace sight, several parents said they no longer intend to allow their children to walk to the shop.

“To hear he (Persad) went to the shop and died. Now, for sure, I’m not sending my children in the shop.”

Although residents praised the speed with which the police responded, they say it was not enough.

“They got here fast but they should have locked down this place. They should have swarmed down here like bees. They can’t show up with just two jeeps and cordon off the area.

“If they had co-ordinated properly, they could have caught those people. They could have locked down the area and held them in a proper roadblock because the speed they responded with, the shooters couldn’t have gotten that far.”

They are calling for increased police patrols.

“This shooting is not the first in the community, and we don’t expect it to be the last.”

“Nothing being done about our safety. It’s like they don’t care about us here.

“Every resident will like to see more police here instead of them

being on the bus route giving tickets to random people. It's better they come out and patrol instead.”

They say the geography of the community also lends to a quick escape for criminals by foot.

“There is a lot of tracks and traces around here. It’s easy for a gunman to shoot somebody here and run through a track, and you can’t catch him.”

They believe while more patrols will not entirely stop crime in the community, it will limit the opportunities since a criminal “could never be sure what they will meet when they run through a track to escape.”

Residents, in the meantime, say they continue to live in fear and mind their own business as looking out for your neighbour could mean a death sentence.

One resident recalled being targeted by criminals after trying to assist a victim of a violent crime.

Another resident said the most residents could do is try to ensure their personal security, adding, “I just looking for somebody to put up a gate in my place.”

Despite the constant fear and lack of police patrols, the residents Newsday spoke with said they had no intention of leaving.

“Anywhere you go, anything could happen, so more or less, you just have to look out. What can you change? Things happen to people in their yard and all, so the most we can do is pray.”