Port of Spain City Corp discusses security concerns after worker killed

MANAGEMENT at the Port of Spain City Corporation spent Wednesday morning in meetings to decide how to address security concerns after the murder of Delano Pierre.

Police said Pierre, 46, of Jubilee Street, Gonzales, was gunned down at about 2 pm as he was driving out of the corporation’s divisional headquarters at the corner of Quarry and Observatory Streets, Port of Spain. He died in the corporation’s Hyundai truck after two men shot him at least seven times and ran off.

A relative of Pierre said his family had moved out of Gonzales years ago and settled in Maloney. About 20 years ago, with increasing violence in Maloney, he decided to return to his home town.

The father of three was killed for that decision, as police said he was not involved in criminal activities, but was killed because he lived in Gonzales.

On Wednesday, Port of Spain mayor Joel Martinez said he had met with the corporation’s CEO and others after some of the 400 employees at the compound stayed away from work because of the killing.

“Some of the employees felt a bit uncomfortable coming to work and that is understandable. The situation right now is very fluid and we will be meeting again tomorrow on the issue.”

Martinez said Pierre was a “nice guy” who was well loved by his colleagues.

Pierre is the second corporation employee murdered while at work simply because of where they lived.

On October 13 last year, Nizam Ali Cadette, 32, was at Laventille Road at about 7.35 am when two men ran out of Lovell Place and shot him. Cadette, a sanitation worker of Bath Street, died at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

He was killed because of a gang war in which residents of Bath Street were not allowed to venture into L'Eau Place, Quarry Street, Rose Hill and Lovell Place. Residents of those areas were also barred from entering Bath Street.

After Cadette’s killing, the corporation sanctioned police  assigned to the Municipal Police to accompany some of its sanitation contractors.

Speaking with Newsday on Wednesday, councillor Clint Baptiste, who represents the area where Cadette was killed and was part of the meeting to address the security concerns then, said security lasted for about a month.

He said when the violence subsided, the need for security waned. With Pierre’s killing, the corporation will be meeting with heads of the city police to mitigate fears.

Baptiste said while the violence subsided, one sanitation contractor asked to be switched with another contractor from collecting garbage in the Laventille area.

Martinez said the corporation workers were grieving, having lost five co-workers between October last year and Tuesday, all to gun violence.