Relatives seek revenge after woman gunned down in Tobago

TOBAGONIANS were shocked and angry on May 9 as the island recorded its eighth murder for 2024 and second with a female victim in less than a week.

The latest victim is 29-year-old Nikesha Sandy, also known as “Stoonkie”, of Jaegers Hall Trace in Plymouth, who was gunned down.

On May 4, the body of Mt Marie, Scarborough resident Shellon Walters-Joseph, 32, was found off a precipice in Mt St George.

Emotions ran high and tempers flared among relatives and villagers when Newsday visited the scene of Sandy’s murder, as they vowed a “kill for kill.”

Sandy’s family was too distraught to speak to Newsday.

Several relatives and friends gathered at the scene. One relative rolled along the roadway screaming, while another ran to Sandy’s lifeless body and hugged it.

A male relative could be heard saying: “Me ain't business...I ain't care what go on...Me ain't care about the police right now, allyuh not doing allyuh work, shame on allyuh, the police service is a disgrace.”

He added: "That is what they want; that is what they going to get. What they want they will get!”

Police cautioned the man about his comments.

Sandy was a labourer with the Tobago House of Assembly’s Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development.

According to police reports, around 6.20 am, officers responded to a shooting along Jaegers Hall Trace. They found Sandy lying motionless on the road.

She was wearing a grey T-shirt, dark grey long pants and a pair of black rubber boots.
Officers said they saw what appeared to be gunshot wounds.

At 8.17 am, a district medical officer visited the scene, viewed the body and made a pronouncement.

The body was taken to the mortuary of the Scarborough General Hospital, where a post-mortem will be done.

Police said Sandy was walking along the road, in company of other people, when two men approached her, and several gunshots were heard. She fell to the ground and the other people scampered.

The assailants escaped by running along River Road in Plymouth.

Electoral representative Niall George visited the scene and spoke to members of the media.

“This is not just as an area representative; this is someone I knew from pretty much birth growing up and to actually hear the gunshots and to be one of the first persons on the street – very distressing. Her family is very close to us, we grew up as neighbours.”

George said he does not want Tobago to reach the stage of numbness.

“It is becoming very frequent. We really need to get an arrest in this crime situation, it’s a very distressing situation. It’s very uncomfortable because you never know, there were other people around, people going to work. It could have been collateral damage, I mean it’s just baffling, I don’t understand the logic. It’s a very distressing situation, it’s a very concerning one. One that I would like the law enforcement agencies and the justice system to get a handle on because it’s breaking the morals and the family values of the society.”