Senior Reporter
anna-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt
The four-year-old boy and his 48-year-old Godmother, who were injured in a shooting outside a preschool at Basement Road, Malick, on Wednesday, were resting comfortably at hospital yesterday. They were reported to be stable and were being monitored by medical practitioners.
A 22-year-old man from Upper Seventh Avenue, Malick, who was also injured in the early morning shooting, was also reported to be in stable condition.
Relatives of Gerard Calliste, 36, and Kemo Calliste, 32, the two men killed in the incident, identified the bodies at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday.
The deadly shooting saw parents and grandparents hurrying to collect their charges from Roxann’s Learning and Childcare Centre, which is located on the busy junction where the shooting occurred.
Administrator Roxann King yesterday said the daycare and kindergarten remained closed yesterday but there are plans to reopen on Monday.
King said 13 preschool children, ranging in ages from one to five, were present when the shooting occurred around 8.10 am. She said officers from the Victim and Witness Support Unit of the TTPS had already reached out to schedule counselling sessions with the children, their parents and guardians, and officials of the school.
“They are starting to meet with the staff from tomorrow (today) please God, for counselling,” she said.
King said while it was “life as usual” for some in the community in the immediate aftermath of the shootings, others were traumatised.
The preschool has been in operation for the past 40 years and King has been at the helm for the last 28 years.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” she said. “God has been good. It could have been worse. It was indiscriminate shooting and it could have been worse, and we are thankful.”
The school currently caters to 35 toddlers and preschoolers.
Meanwhile, Laventille East/Morvant MP Adrian Leonce extended condolences to the families of the men killed in the shooting and offered comforting words to those recovering from injuries. He admitted the community had suffered immense trauma caused by the two shootings on Wednesday and another at 4 pm, when a resident of Upper Seventh Avenue was gunned down.
Leonce said he had met with the TTPS and members of the community on the spate of killings in the past several months in the area, and indicated that he would be in the area today to meet with residents.
However, president of the Sixth Avenue Malick Village Council, Nicholas Gopaul, criticised the MP for his failure to address pertinent issues affecting the community. He said residents were extremely concerned and alarmed about the escalation in killings in the area. He claimed a request to meet with the MP had fallen on deaf ears and efforts to secure government funding for community initiatives had fallen through.
Gopaul said the area’s community centre, one of the oldest in the country, is in urgent need of an upgrade.
“That is preventing us from getting programmes and initiatives to come to the area, to steer the youths in a different direction,” he said.
He also renewed a call for a mobile police post in the area and increased foot and mobile patrols.
Noting that there had been a heightened police presence three weeks ago following consecutive killings, Gopaul said, “That has since died down significantly.”
He recalled that at a town hall meeting in June, residents appealed to the authorities for help.
“We need government officials to come to the area, listen to our pleas, listen to our recommendations, and let us work together to solve the problem, to at least bring some measure of safety to the residents,” he said.