Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

A rel­a­tive of 23-year-old co­conut ven­dor Ja­son Mo­hammed, who was gunned down in Bar­rack­pore on Sun­day night, is ap­peal­ing to young peo­ple to stay away from bad com­pa­ny.

May­lyn Al­lette said she did not know why her nephew was killed, but said his moth­er had cau­tioned him many times about the friends he min­gled with.  

Mo­hammed was among a group of peo­ple lim­ing at Pla­tan­ite Trace, Rochard Road, when a sil­ver-coloured hatch­back ve­hi­cle pulled up. Three masked gun­men came out and fired at them. Mo­hammed ran but stum­bled and fell a short dis­tance away. He died at the scene. An­oth­er man, aged 22, was al­so in­jured.

Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­cov­ered 26 spent 9mm shells at the scene.

Speak­ing at her Bar­rack­pore home yes­ter­day, Alette said her nephew was stay­ing in the area where the shoot­ing oc­curred. She said on Sun­day night, she heard her sis­ter (Mo­hammed’s moth­er) scream­ing and she told her Mo­hammed was fa­tal­ly shot.

Al­lette said, “His moth­er is al­ways talk­ing to him about the com­pa­ny he keeps. She told him the com­pa­ny is not good com­pa­ny. Up to Tues­day, his moth­er told me she talked to him and he was not sup­posed to go back down the road. He did not lis­ten. I do not know what made him go back there.”

As a moth­er of five chil­dren, she said she was fear­ful for their safe­ty. 

“I al­ways say stay away from bad com­pa­ny. Friends car­ry you but do not bring you back. You will get killed, no care for the in­no­cent,” she said.

“You will get hurt at the end of the day. This gang and shoot­ing—it’s not nice. It’s when it hits your home you will feel it. I have to keep my chil­dren in­side.”

Po­lice con­firmed that Mo­hammed had a pend­ing court mat­ter for firearms and am­mu­ni­tion. How­ev­er, Homi­cide de­tec­tives were yet to as­cer­tain a mo­tive yes­ter­day.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion III are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.