SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

In­stead of joy and hap­pi­ness on Christ­mas Day to­day, rel­a­tives of 33-year-old Keanu Chan­dler will be in pain and sor­row.

All their ex­cite­ment and plans for to­day came crash­ing down when they re­ceived trag­ic news yes­ter­day that Chan­dler was shot at Ba­j­nath Street in Pe­nal.

When his aunt De­an­dra Ce­de­no ar­rived at the scene, she saw his life­less body on the road. He was a whole­sale clothes mer­chant and the fa­ther of three chil­dren ages 12, ten and eight. Chan­dler lived in Aquart Vil­lage, about two miles away from where he was killed.

Af­ter re­ceiv­ing re­ports about loud ex­plo­sions at Ba­j­nath Street, the po­lice went to the area and found Chan­dler’s body with gun­shot wounds to his chest. Po­lice re­cov­ered sev­er­al spent 5.56 cas­ings on the road.

Chan­dler spoke to his girl­friend at 5.40 am via a What­sApp video call and in­formed her he was leav­ing a whap­pie (card game) at Ba­j­nath Street.

A white Ti­i­da with un­locked doors, keys in the ig­ni­tion and a quan­ti­ty of cash was near Chan­dler’s body, but no one claimed the ve­hi­cle.

While speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Chan­dler’s aunt, Ce­de­no, was over­come with grief. She said he would usu­al­ly go to Ba­j­nath Trace to play whap­pie, so she be­lieved he may have been gam­bling. She re­called that be­fore he left home on Mon­day night, they spoke about their Christ­mas plans.

Every­one, she said, was go­ing to buy match­ing py­ja­mas and take pho­tos on Christ­mas morn­ing.

“All dif­fer­ent menus, every­body get to­geth­er. Take break­fast in the morn­ing and then Christ­mas night and Box­ing Day I would ac­com­mo­date all my nieces, nephews and every­body. Christ­mas is out of the league right now,” she said.

In­stead, she said they were prepar­ing for the wake.

Lament­ing that crime was out of con­trol in T&T, she said, “This is a heart­less world we are liv­ing in.”

She de­scribed Chan­dler as a nice, friend­ly, cool and out­go­ing per­son who was al­ways will­ing to give a help­ing hand.

Homi­cide Re­gion 3 de­tec­tives did not con­firm a mo­tive for his killing.