Samp­son Nan­ton

Samp­son Nan­ton

As one of four gang­sters was mur­der­ing the two Suc­cess Laven­tille stu­dents on Thurs­day, he shout­ed, "Five for Five".

It was spe­cif­ic and cal­cu­lat­ed–each of the boys was shot five times. But why?

Just weeks ago, a gang mem­ber op­er­at­ing out of a ter­ri­to­ry war­ring against a gang from the area where the boys lived was shot five times as well and, al­though he did not die, "five for five" was pro­nounced up­on the two teenaged stu­dents in re­tal­i­a­tion, to in­flict pain and fear on their com­mu­ni­ty.

This ac­count comes from one of the men on the ground, work­ing with a team of 12 com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivists called "in­ter­rupters," des­per­ate­ly try­ing to stop gang ac­tiv­i­ty and mur­ders in Laven­tille.

Hal Greaves spoke open­ly on the CNC3 Morn­ing Brew yes­ter­day, hours af­ter beat­ing the ground try­ing to en­sure that these mur­ders do not es­ca­late in­to some­thing worse.

Mem­bers of his team had spent time with fam­i­ly of the mur­dered teens and with the youth most like­ly to re­tal­i­ate, urg­ing them not to do so.

But there is al­ready a chill­ing in­di­ca­tion that their work this time will have to be more than the usu­al.

While one team was work­ing to ease the pain of the killings, Greaves got a call from an­oth­er team mem­ber who was in the ter­ri­to­ry of the gang that's be­lieved to have com­mit­ted the crime.

"Last night one of my in­ter­rupters calls me and tells me an­oth­er com­mu­ni­ty is cel­e­brat­ing. So while I'm get­ting calls for help, an in­ter­rupter is telling me that the boys by him are cel­e­brat­ing that two youths are down and that they have more to put down," he said.

"I got so an­gry...an­gry at the sense­less­ness of it. You have to send peo­ple to let them know that we are aware and that can­not con­tin­ue. The po­lice have their work to do. We use com­mu­ni­ty me­di­a­tion, con­flict res­o­lu­tion to try to bring an end."

No Laven­tille Road taxis were go­ing up to Pic­ton Fri­day morn­ing as a re­sult of the mur­ders. No one want­ed to take that chance.

"They are not go­ing to leave the Pic­ton area to go fur­ther up in­to a Ras­ta City area be­cause they fear that they too might be pulled out of the car and ex­e­cut­ed," Greaves said.

The war is be­tween the Ras­ta City and Mus­lim gangs. It ex­plodes and dies down from time to time based on fac­tors on­ly the gang­sters them­selves seem to know.

A mur­der is al­ways a sure sign that it has start­ed up again.

"Ear­li­er this year the gangs in the area start­ed go­ing through the La­dy of Fa­ti­ma church­yard and school­yard to go in­to the ceme­tery to shoot at each oth­er," Greaves re­called.

"It's just erupt­ing at dif­fer­ent points. Men on Nel­son Street are try­ing to keep it qui­et be­cause we had a mur­der the day be­fore, an uniden­ti­fied man down in the riv­er.

"We (the com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivists) still have to be on the Beetham, Sea Lots, East­ern Quar­ry...we still have to be in Bel­mont af­ter the dou­ble-mur­der.

"We've had 11 peo­ple mur­dered in Laven­tille and the Port-of-Spain area but I on­ly have 12 peo­ple who have to re­spond and keep gangs away from each oth­er.

"Pan­men are call­ing and ask­ing if it is safe for them to have prac­tice," he said.

While the Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary School of­ten had a neg­a­tive stig­ma be­cause of where it is lo­cat­ed, Greaves was cer­tain that events at the school had noth­ing to do with the mur­ders.

"They're (the mur­der­ers) not in­ter­est­ed in the school. They're in­ter­est­ed in hurt­ing a com­mu­ni­ty. That com­mu­ni­ty which the peo­ple of Laven­tille call 'Brook­lyn', they're un­der fire right now. They're un­der the gun. They're be­ing at­tacked," he said.

"It doesn't mat­ter whether you were a gang mem­ber or not. You're from the area and our pain must be­come your pain. It's a mind­less war."

The mind­less war has left the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi a hurt man.

Speak­ing in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, he lament­ed young school­boys be­ing made vic­tims of such a heinous crime.

"Who in their right mind with a con­science and soul could take two young men out of car in uni­form, tell the young la­dy and dri­ver that they could go, and shoot them five times. This has noth­ing to do with the PNM or the UNC," he says.

Greaves would agree. As far as his ex­pe­ri­ences go, this is a war that comes to the most in­no­cent in­di­vid­u­als be­cause of one fac­tor–where they live.

"Peo­ple are be­liev­ing that they will be killed at some point be­cause of where they are grow­ing up.

"I know of a young per­son com­ing to his moth­er and say­ing, 'Mom­my when is my time to join the war?' They grow up be­liev­ing that they have to join at some time.

"You die in this war be­cause of where you're from," he said.