Mem­bers of the Mon­trose busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty are de­mand­ing that their elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives do more to get in­creased po­lice pa­trols in the area.

On Fri­day night, a can­dle­light vig­il was held in mem­o­ry of mur­dered busi­ness­man Dar­ryl Din­di­al, 52, who was gunned down out­side his au­to parts deal­er­ship at the Mon­trose Main Road on Thurs­day when gun­men at­tempt­ed to rob him around 6 pm. Din­di­al lat­er died at the Ch­agua­nas Health Cen­tre. Af­ter the in­ci­dent on Thurs­day evening, mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty burned tyres along the Mon­trose Main Road to protest the ris­ing lev­el of crime in that area. On Fri­day, they lit can­dles and called for jus­tice.

Rana Per­sad, a close friend of the mur­der vic­tim, said, "This vig­il is to high­light the non­sen­si­cal killing of Mr Dinidal." Per­sad said Din­di­al's wife and fam­i­ly are still in shock.

She said the Long­denville Po­lice Post was "use­less" as the of­fi­cers are al­ways com­plain­ing that they have no ve­hi­cles to tack­le re­ports of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty when they are called to as­sist.

Ro­get Beep­ut, 50, an­oth­er friend of Din­di­al, be­came emo­tion­al dur­ing the in­ter­view. Beep­ut said safe­ty in a com­mu­ni­ty has now be­come a lux­u­ry. Beep­ut said he ex­pects crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty to in­crease in the area as the econ­o­my wors­ens. "Crime has rav­aged this so­ci­ety in ways we can’t think about," he added.

Members of the Montrose community during Friday night's candelight vigil for slain businessman Darryl Dindial.

Shastri Boodan

Ca­roni East MP Dr Rishard Seecha­ran was at the event. Seecha­ran said his den­tal prac­tice was along the Mon­trose Main Road. He said many be­lieve that Cen­tral busi­ness­men, "es­pe­cial­ly the busi­ness­men along the Main Road, are be­ing tar­get­ed by crim­i­nals." He called on the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to do more to pro­tect the busi­ness­men in Cen­tral. Seecha­ran said busi­ness op­er­a­tors were call­ing for gun per­mits and more po­lice pa­trols.

Ca­roni Cen­tral MP Arnold Ram said the area has been plagued with crime for the last two weeks and is now con­sid­ered a crime hotspot. Ram said more busi­ness op­er­a­tors with firearms will be a de­ter­rent and put them on an equal foot­ing with ful­ly armed ban­dits. He said the Gov­ern­ment has demon­strat­ed that it is not se­ri­ous about deal­ing with crime, as they are on­ly mak­ing ex­cus­es.