The brazen midday shooting of a water vendor at the intersection of Broadway and South Quay in Port-of-Spain on Thursday has left many people shocked.
“In the middle of the day, they have no respect for nobody…I say wow, well here gone through,” vendor Mackleen London said yesterday.
London, who sells not too far from where the attack took place, said she was surprised when she found out who the victim was.
As of yesterday evening, Joel Williams was still being treated at hospital and the suspect remained at large
“Tallboy does only sell water,” she said.
Another vendor, Malachi Sylvester, said sometimes, people are targeted because of where they live.
Williams, 30, is a resident of St Paul Street, Port-of-Spain.
“Not everybody in the community is 100 per cent bad,” Sylvester said.
Both Sylvester and another vendor called for a heavier police presence in the capital, as they said they do not feel safe.
“We need to put more patrols on the streets…when a person selling you not seeing any police but when a crime escalate person get murdered the police appeared just so and that’s not right that could be somebody brother, somebody son…I doh feel safe generally,” Sylvester said.
But the calls for more police in Port-of-Spain also came from those responsible for the operation of the city.
Other vendors who did not want to be identified said Williams has been selling water in the same spot for two years. They described him as pleasant.
Mayor Joel Martinez said Thursday’s midday shooting showed that the criminal element feels like they can do what they want when they want and that cannot continue. So, from as soon as next week, he plans to increase patrols of Municipal City Police throughout the city.
“And be at certain strategic points throughout the city,” he said.
Martinez said he will ask for the support of the Police Service when he meets with the Acting Commissioner soon.
“We have to have that measure of safety so that customers can feel safe coming back,” he said.
He said as mayor, he felt hurt seeing video footage of what happened on Thursday, mainly because he once boasted that Port-of-Spain was safe.
“We can’t allow these issues to creep into the everyday normal part of life,” Martinez said.
But according to Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) president Gregory Aboud, this may have already become the norm.
Speaking with Guardian Media close to the crime scene yesterday, Aboud said, “We are losing our city.”
Adding that the attack signalled a collapse of Trinidad and Tobago, he added, “Are we pretending that this is an isolated incident and every time it happens we kick the can down the road and say it’s not going to happen again and it goes and happens again and again?”
Last month, a bandit was shot and killed by police on Wrightson Road near the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) during rush hour and in the month before that, the driver of a silver Nissan Wingroad escaped death after gunmen opened fire on his vehicle outside City Gate, the main transpiration hub in the country.
Aboud said many business owners expressed concern about the shooting and those in authority need to see Port-of-Spain as a special place.
Martinez could not confirm if the shooting was gang-related and calls to acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob went unanswered yesterday.