Duke warns of response to murders: Tobagonians will protect themselves

Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader and electoral representative for Roxborough/Argyle Watson Duke is calling on the police to do their job before Tobagonians take matters into their own hands.

Duke made the statement at a media conference on September 23 at the PDP headquarters in Scarborough, after two murders took place in his electoral district over the weekend. Up to press time, Tobago's murder for this year stood at 24.

Duke said he is feeling the pain, fear and mental anguish of his people

"When the murder that took place in the late hours on Friday night into Saturday morning, when that murder took place, the family was grieving. But someone felt that the grief in the Argyle community was not enough, and so another person struck in a murderous fashion, attacking another of our residents, plunging the same community into further despair and grief."

On Friday night, Brandon Edwards was killed while on Saturday morning, Nicholas Mitchell was murdered.

Mitchell, according to a Newsday report on September 23, was a labourer from Windward Main Road in Argyle.

At about 2 am on Saturday, the Newsday report said, Mitchell's mother was at home when she heard two gunshots and heard him cry out. On checking, she found him dead in one of the rooms of the house.

Hours earlier, on Friday night at about 10.03 pm, Edwards was shot dead outside his Argyle home.

Duke said he spent both Saturday and Sunday in the community consoling and listening to the grieving families of the two murder victims. He said one of the major complaints is that the police have not been doing sufficient patrols. He said he visited the police station in the district and spoke with the inspector.

"I want to send a strong message to the police service, those operating in Tobago: do not take Tobagonians for fools, do not think that Tobagonians are without alternative methods of protecting themselves.

"If you are looking for an ugly scene, there will be an ugly scene, because any man who is afraid will protect himself, and heaven knows, I do not want Tobagonians to get into that mood.

"If Tobagonians get into that mood, they do not have the right investigative arm to find out who did it or why they did it, but once they have a conviction, they would act on it."

Duke said this is how the murders will spin out of control.

"As the assemblyman for the area, there is a time when people will not fear again and they will defend their own families. There is a limit to which a man can take, and then he will take no more.

"Where the hell are we going with this? Who has brought these guns to Tobago? Who are these guys going around playing these cat-and-mouse games – shooting people in their backs, shooting people whilst they are sleeping?

"I want the police to do their job, let the police do their jobs."