Murder victims' families warn: Don't lime with gangsters

Relatives of two men who were killed in separate incidents on Thursday and Sunday believe the victims' association with people involved in crime led to their deaths.

In an interview with Newsday at the Forensic Science Centre on July 15, Earl Peters recounted how his son Earl Junior Peters disregarded multiple warnings about repairing a car, dismissing them as jokes which tragically resulted in his losing his life.

His father said, "My son would say, 'I not in nothing. I just working on the guy's car. I not in nothing.'"

Peters said in Trinidad and Tobago today gunmen were "killing people for nothing."

Junior Peters, 35, Jah-Marley Goddard, 23, and Dave Lyons, 24, all from Diego Martin, were gunned down on Sunday outside Rituals/Pizza Boys on the Southern Main Road, Cunupia.

Around noon on July 14, the three bought three chillers, returned to their car and were about to leave when a car slammed into their silver Subaru Impreza.

Two gunmen got out of the car and shot the trio multiple times with large-calibre rifles.

Several stray bullets shattered the front window of the restaurant as employees and customers threw themselves to the floor and hid behind the counter, seeking cover.

The Special Evidence Recovery Unit found 41 spent shells at the scene (24 9mm, 15 5.56 and two 7.62) along with one live round of 9mm ammunition and one deformed projectile.

On Monday, Peters was shocked at his son's untimely death.

"He was a real loving child. I don't know how he got caught up in this. How?"

He believes his son was doing a job for someone caught up in wrongdoing.

"Wrong company – fixing a car for someone and gone to drop a car for them.

"He drop the car and carry the man for something to eat, and that was it."

His son was a mechanic and had a six-year-old daughter.

Another male relative described Junior Peters as hard-working and a man without a criminal record.

"He went to drop back a vehicle and just got caught up."

His father said he and his son had a close relationship, and had spoken mere hours before the incident.

"It was a simple conversation: he called and said what he had to do and how he was going to drop off the car."

His father said multiple people warned his son about working on the car.

He urged those in similar situations – working for people involved in wrongdoing – to stop.

"You can't involve these people by you.

"Don't bring them in your place."

Peters said the family will now care for his son's daughter, as they lived in his yard.

At a media briefing at the Police Administration Building in Port of Spain on July 14, deputy commissioner of police responsible for intelligence and investigations Suzette Martin said the killings were gang-related.

Police said Goddard appeared to be the target of the attack.

Lyons's family was inconsolable at the scene, many in tears.

A male relative told the media on July 14 that Lyons, a Coast Guard officer, had celebrated his birthday hours before and was at the family's home in Sea Trace, Diego Martin, helping with some ongoing construction, when a car pulled up in front of the house.

The driver blew the horn several times and called out to Lyons, who went outside to speak with the men in the car.

The relative said Lyons left with the men, and half an hour later, they heard he had been shot.

Newsday contacted the public relations officer for the TT Coast Guard, Lt Khadija Lamy.

She said, "We do not comment on police investigations."

When contacted again for clarification, she referred Newsday to the Coast Guard's social media pages. Newsday found nothing onthe death of Lyons on its official Instagram page and the last post on its Facebook page was dated June 16.

She added, "I have nothing further to comment."

Commissioner of Police (CoP) Erla Harewood-Christopher, speaking at a media briefing on July 14, said half of the murders on the weekend were gang-related.

"It would seem that the more we succeed in disrupting and dismantling the criminal gangs, the more desperate they are becoming and even more brazenly they are behaving."

Deputy CoP responsible for operations Junior Benjamin said the police will tackle the gangs and crime head-on.

"We want to say it will be some in-your-face policing. Therefore, we are asking the public to really work with us if, at times, they might be inconvenienced.

"Understand that we are taking a no-nonsense approach to this situation."

He said stations were on high alert, with increased police presence and quick response times.

"We have ensured that we have more and more patrols outside there, and I want to assure you that at this time, we have ensured that there continues to be a constant presence of the police. We would ensure at the same time that we seek to deal with all matters that come to the station in a very quick and professional manner."

Murder victim's family wants to leave TT

On July 11, Shaquille Parreira, 26, of LP 37 Upper Belmont Valley Road, Belmont, was shot dead.

Police said around 6.30 am on July 11, Parreira was waiting for transport along that same road.

A white vehicle pulled up and a lone gunman got out and shot at Parreira, hitting him multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police believe his killing was gang-related.

Speaking at the Forensic Science Complex, St James, on July 15, a male relative said the crime situation in TT was overbearing.

"Imagine, my children sleeping under me now. They usually sleep together without me."

The relative explained he usually gets up tat hat same time to go to work, but did not feel like going early that morning.

"When I decided I wasn't going, I feel back asleep and within 15 minutes, 'Bang, bang, bang.'"

He said the gunshots sounded extremely close, so he came out, only to be told his relative had been shot dead.

He said if someone is seen talking to certain people, that person is classed with their associates.

"You don't have to be in anything, because he wasn't in anything.

"He wouldn't shun a boy because they grew up together."

The relative said Parreira had a five-year-old daughter and was working at the yacht club with his father.

He described Parreira as spiritual and said they were preparing for a three-day feast.

"He was a person that don't talk; he was quiet. He was an Orisha and a manifestor – praying people...Parreira was a person with clean hands and a pure heart."

The relative said they were preparing for a three-day feast.

The male relative said present-day criminals are heartless.

"The gangster life was different to now.

"If I come for you and I don't see you, I gone. I not going to kill your mother to send a message to you."

He was upset with the police, as he had not seen a patrol on what he described as a "hot corner."

He said the next move for him and his family is to try to migrate, as they do not feel safe in TT.

Gunmen run amok

On July 12, Hasani Bonas, 29, and Jaheim Charlo, 19, were gunned down while standing on Agostini Street, Gonzales, Belmont.

Police said around 4 pm on July 12, three vehicles stopped close to them and several gunshots were heard. The vehicles then drove away.

The murders of Bonas and Charlo came about six weeks after another Gonzales shooting incident claimed the lives of four men on June 2.

In that incident, police said a group of men were liming near a school after a game of football. Without warning, gunmen arrived in a car and began shooting. One man was killed and several others injured.

They were taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital, but moments after their arrival, masked gunmen also stormed the hospital in a car. While relatives of the wounded men and medics were trying to get the victims into the hospital's accident and emergency department, the gunmen got out of their car and started shooting.

Three men were killed at the hospital and another was shot and wounded.

Jayden Reyes, 21, Peter Williams, 31, Kevin "Grimes" King, 33, and Johnathon "Johnny/Jman" Arjoon, 23, all died.

Around 8.45 pm on July 12, 20-year-old Jemerc Fonrose Marc – who was out buying a burger – and 44-year-old Kerwin McLeod were shot and killed at Mango Rose, Laventille. A 66-year-old man was also injured.

Police say three men were liming on the pavement when a silver Nissan Tiida pulled up next to them. Three masked men got out and began shooting. Marc and McLeod died while being treated.

Shorn Nigel George, 37, was shot and killed on Foster Road, Sangre Grande, around 10 pm on July 12.

A woman heard gunshots she believed were coming from the back of her home and called the police. When they arrived, they found George in a room at the back of a house, with two gunshot wounds to his chest.

Speaking at the Forensic Science Centre, St James on July 15, George's common-law wife said he was a hard-working man who loved his family.

"He was a hustler, started with nothing and build it up to the top. He never asked anyone for anything; he just hustled like a dog – coming in late, leaving early.

"He was always giving something, always helpful."

She said she spoke with George minutes before the incident.

"He brought a box of doughnuts, ice cream and coconut water he bottled that day.

"He kissed our two children, said he loved us and said he'll be back: he going to hustle. Minutes after I got the phone call that he was shot."

She said George spent hours on the floor without receiving any help from the police.

"No one helped him, no one carried him to the hospital; that's how he died."

She said the system in TT was corrupt.

"Is about who you know and who know you. All these murders going unsolved.

"Bring back the death penalty. Them going to jail is them sitting on my taxpayer's money."

She said the killers had left a four-month-old and a four-year-old fatherless.

A 62-year-old man was injured in that shooting. The unidentified man told the police he had been shot while walking along the road.

Murders July 13-15

July 13: Dwayne Richardson and his 31-year-old common-law wife Latoya Voisin, of Maturita Road, Arima, were asleep at their home when gunmen attacked and shot them both dead. Voisin shielded her four-year-old son's body with her own and the child survived.

Rio Claro businesswoman Carissa Ramrattan was attacked while in the grounds  Toyota's south office. Gunmen shot her multiple times and stole her purse. She died at the San Fernando General Hospital later that day.

Missing TT RideShare driver Shakeem Charles, 32, of Indian Walk, was found dead in a bushy area off Sunrees Branch Road, Penal. He was last seen on July 9 around 5 pm, when he left his girlfriend's Princes Town home in his white Yaris Cross. When Charles did not return and calls and messages went unanswered, relatives reported him missing. His car was found abandoned on Emon Lane, Valencia the following day.

July 14: Junior Peters, 35, Jah-Marley Goddard, 23, and Dave Lyons, 24, all from Diego Martin, were shot dead outside Rituals/Pizza Boys on the Southern Main Road, Cunupia.

The body of an unidentified East Indian man was found on the M1 Tasker Road in Ste Madeleine. The body bore several gunshot wounds. There was a tattoo on the right wrist.

Mikhail Cox, 33, of Oropune Garden, Piarco, was gunned down at the corner of Charlotte Street and South Quay, Port of Spain. Police found Cox dead and another victim was taken to hospital. Police said the murder was gang-related.

The body of missing taxi driver Densely Eudovic, 40, was found about 40 feet off Cunapo Southern Road, Sangre Grande.

July 15: A Venezuelan man, Fayge Acosta, 23, of Freeport, was stabbed to death at his home. Police said around 12.45 am, his relatives heard noises and saw him with a stab wound to his chest. He was taken to the Couva Hospital but died around 3.30 am. Police have no motive for his murder.

Anthony John's body was found in Dump Road, Arima. Police said he had been shot multiple times and died at the scene.