Friend: Lady Young murder victim would ‘give you his last dollar’

A friend of a man who was shot to death in Belmont on Saturday has described the crime situation as “sad.”

Nigel Antoine, 33, of Joseph Trace, Belmont died after a shooting incident in Mc Kai Lands, Belmont.

Reports said around 11 am a blue Wingroad drove into Mc Kai Lands from Lady Young Road and pulled up alongside Antoine.

Four men got out of the car and began shooting.

Antoine died on the spot. Another man, Akeal St Hillaire, was shot in the hip and was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Speaking to media at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, one of Antoine’s friends, who wished to remain anonymous, said he never knew him to be involved in a life of crime.

He said Antoine, who had a one-year-old son, was always kind and generous.

“He was loving and caring…He just always wanted to see people happy. Everything was always for people, never for himself. He was the kind of person to give you his last dollar.”

He said Antoine “had his ways” but did not live a life which justified his death.

“Everybody have their ways, it’s how you decide to live…It is just sad.”

He recalled talking to Antoine moments before his death.

“I spoke with him the same day, right before it happened. I asked him to call my wife for me.”

Asked his thoughts on crime now that it had hit home, Antoine’s friend said violent crime “has always been home,” adding it had just struck closer this time.

“That is life. We live and we learn,” he said.

Antoine was one of several people gunned down between Friday and Sunday.

The body of Leon Richardson, 50, was found in a garden near Broiler Trace, Cameron Road, Petit Valley, on Friday with a gunshot wound to his head.

Richardson was last seen on Thursday after he dropped his girlfriend to work in St James at around 2 pm and went to work as a taxi driver in Diego Martin.

Around 9 pm, residents of Broiler Trace noticed an unfamiliar car parked on the road for several hours with its ignition on and called the police.

Police searched the car and found Richardson’s cellphone and driver’s permit.

Around 4 pm on Friday a nearby resident found Richardson’s body and called the police.

Later that day, Junior Joseph, 51, was killed while liming at his home on Upper Seventh Avenue, Malick.

Joseph and some friends were in his yard when a silver Nissan AD Wagon stopped in front of his home.

Several gunshots were heard and Joseph was left lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head.

He was taken to hospital but was declared dead at around 6 pm.

And on Sunday, Isiah Dennis, 21, of La Sieva Village, Maracas, St Joseph was found dead near his home with gunshot wounds.

Around 4 pm, Dennis was walking along Centre Trace, La Seiva Village, when he was approached by two men he knew.

Residents reported hearing gunshots shortly after and the men were seen running off.

Residents called the police after hearing the shots and finding Dennis’s body in the road.

Police found Dennis had gunshot wounds to his head and buttocks. They also found four spent 9 mm shell casings at the scene.

The district medical officer pronounced him dead at the scene and ordered his body removed and a post-mortem examination done at the Forensic Sciences Centre.

Family members at the Forensic Centre on Monday said they would think about speaking with the media, but eventually left without doing so.

Dennis, who was said to be a member of the Resistance gang, was the fifth member of the gang killed in four days.

Four of its alleged members were killed on May 23 during an alleged shootout with police in a forested area, known as “The Zone,” at Upper St Michael Road, off St John’s Road, in St Augustine.

The four men, Christopher “John Doe” Noriega, 27, Akeem “Scheme” Punnette, 19, Tevon “Beaver” Maynard and Joshua “Bounty Killer” Allen, were linked to the kidnapping of doubles vendor Anisha Hosein, 27, of Maracas, St Joseph, who was snatched on May 18, at her businessplace in El Dorado.

She was released on May 22, near the Caroni Cremation Site. A ransom had been demanded for her release but police did not disclose whether a ransom was paid.

Police said the Resistance gang is suspected of having been responsible for several murders over the years, including the spate of murders at Trainline, St Augustine, in 2023 that left seven people dead and others injured.