Murdered RideShare driver's mother: 'Youths don't value life'

The grief-stricken mother of the TT Ride Share driver who was found dead over the weekend is appealing to mothers to discipline their children.

Her son, Shakeem Charles, 32, was reported missing on July 10 when he did not return home the day before.

His vehicle was later found abandoned in Valencia.

Apart from his daily job as an IT technician, he recently began as a driver with TT Ride Share to earn extra money.

His decomposing body was found with his hands bound in a bushy area off Sunrees Branch Road, Penal.

Police believe he was the victim of a robbery during his side job.

Sitting in the gallery of her Indian Walk, Moruga home on July 15, Margaret Charles slumped back in her chair, holding her head as she expressed the pain her family is enduring.

"They always had a saying: 'Trinidad is nice, Trinidad is a paradise.' But it ent paradise no more.

"We need to get Trinidad back to that paradise."

To do this, she believes parents, specifically mothers, need to focus on disciplining their children.

"They take the whip out of the school but they didn't take it out of the home.

"You have to discipline your children. Don't leave it for the teacher to discipline the children for you on the outside there. That discipline have to start from home."

She said teaching children discipline used to begin from a tender age but is no longer practised.

"Long time we know when children small as a baby, the first thing you tell your child, your baby who now learning to talk...'Say morning, say evening.' If you give them something, 'Say thanks.' They ask for something, 'Say please.'

"These mothers not telling their children that because they don't know about it and if they know about it, they don't care."

A retired nurse of over 36 years in the public healthcare system, she said she has witnessed the decline in morals and values displayed in the attitudes of young mothers who visited clinics.

"They giving you attitude. Sometimes, they find they take too long. They come before this one and they come before that one and they giving you attitude.

"The youths, they don't value themselves. They don't value themselves, they have no value for life because they don't value themselves.

"If they don't have it for themselves, how do you expect them to have it for others' lives?"

Additionally, she believed people were too preoccupied with blaming others for their problems instead of taking responsibility and constructively uplifting themselves.

She said her children were brought up with this discipline, love and the knowledge that she would not condone them getting on the wrong side of the law.

She said Shakeem was working hard to provide for his two children, four and eight. She said he recently purchased a new Toyota Cross after years of driving an older, unreliable vehicle.

"People don't know the sacrifice my son make. That child make sacrifice to get he want.

"He work in Port of Spain. He worked shift. Sometimes, he leave here to go to work for four o'clock in the evening and coming home two o'clock, three o'clock, one o'clock hours in the morning."

She said he joined the TT Ride Share service to help earn extra money to help pay the monthly instalments for the new vehicle.

A release from the company condemned Charles' killing and offered condolences and support to his family.

It said it is also committed to working to deter and minimise threats posed by criminals.

Charles said her grandchildren kept asking for their father, wondering when he was coming home.

Since his killing, she said Shakeem's two brothers stepped up, saying they would be fathers to his children.

However, with their own financial expenses to bear, they started a GoFundMe to raise money to help take care of the children. The fundraising page titled: "GoFundMe for Shakeem Charles children Amarah and Amare" said the money raised will be used to support their education, provide the children with emotional and psychological support to cope with their loss and assist with daily expenses. Their goal is US $50,000 and up to 6 pm on July 15, it had raised US $1,115.