Jensen La Vende

The killing of 54-year-old Derek Hook­er, the se­nior man­ag­er of op­er­a­tions (North West) of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), is be­ing de­scribed by po­lice as sense­less.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, around 6.30 pm Mon­day, Hook­er had just pulled in­to his yard when he was ap­proached by a gun­man. Po­lice said as he was walk­ing in­to his home the man shot him in the face twice and left.

He was tak­en to the St James Med­ical Cen­tre and then trans­ferred to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he died around 9.30 pm.

The mur­der toll for the year stood at 337 up to late yes­ter­day.

Speak­ing with the me­dia at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, yes­ter­day Hook­er's wife, Bernadette, said the cou­ple would have cel­e­brat­ed their 25 wed­ding an­niver­sary on Oc­to­ber 15. She said her hus­band was a won­der­ful man who loved the Lord and that was his on­ly crime.

Hook­er's broth­er, An­tho­ny, said the fa­ther of six was a pres­i­dent at the Mor­mon Taber­na­cle on Cipri­ani Boule­vard, Port-of-Spain, and lived for the church, work and peo­ple.

"He doesn't re­al­ly sleep much be­cause his life is WASA, the church and peo­ple. He would go and pray for peo­ple who are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing prob­lems. Peo­ple with mon­ey is­sues, he would try to help them.

"So for some­body to come and do this, peo­ple are won­der­ing why. He wasn't in­volved in drugs or any­thing. We know 100 per cent that he was not in­volved in any­thing.

"He doesn't drink or smoke. He doesn't even lime. Why take a fa­ther, a broth­er, a fam­i­ly man, an aide to so­ci­ety?" An­tho­ny asked.

He added: "He was in con­trol of the North re­gion. He doesn't phys­i­cal­ly see about the con­tracts. From what we heard, that is not nor­mal for some­one to call some­one out of their home and shoot them, so it has to be some­thing. He nev­er com­plained about any threats. They took noth­ing from the man."

Cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er of WASA Daniel Plen­ty, in a me­dia re­lease, said Hook­er was em­ployed at the au­thor­i­ty for 32 years.

He said Hook­er built a rep­u­ta­tion as a high­ly ded­i­cat­ed and ex­em­plary work­er, who was loved by all.

"There is a great sense of loss be­ing ex­pe­ri­enced through­out the au­thor­i­ty, as em­ploy­ees through­out the or­gan­i­sa­tion come to terms with this sud­den and sense­less loss of a most val­ued em­ploy­ee and co-work­er.

"The au­thor­i­ty hopes that the per­pe­tra­tor/s of this crime will be brought to jus­tice in the short­est pos­si­ble time," the re­lease added.

In an un­re­lat­ed killing, 17-year-old Richard Guy died while be­ing treat­ed at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal af­ter be­ing shot by a gun­man on Mon­day evening.

Po­lice said around 6.30 pm Guy was near the hous­ing scheme along the Old St Joseph Road when a gun­man ap­proached him and shot him.

A 24-year-old woman al­so was shot in the right arm. Both were tak­en to hos­pi­tal. How­ev­er, Guy died while be­ing treat­ed.