As Randy Graves was laid to rest yesterday, Fr Matthew Dhereaux called on residents of east Port-of-Spain to call out those doing “stupidness” and protect their community.
He also urged leaders from religious denominations to come together to determine how they could provide counselling and therapy, for at least six months, for residents of Harpe Place and surrounding areas traumatised by the killings in their communities.
He said residents could no longer afford to carry the trauma alone.
He made the appeal as he delivered the homily during Graves’ funeral at the Holy Rosary RC Church in Port-of-Spain yesterday.
Graves, 32, was among five people killed when gunmen drove into Harpe Place and opened fire on March 16.
The other victims included Sgt Larry Phillip; Rudolph Donnie James; Pete Noray; and Devon Jack.
Dhereaux advised, “Healing comes from counselling and therapy and you will have to talk about this.”
Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds told the Parliament last Monday that counselling, as well as increased police patrols, would be provided for residents of Harpe Place.
Yesterday, Graves’ relatives cried quietly in the church as they recalled his loving and generous personality.
Fr Dhereaux pleaded with them and the residents to call out those in the protective services and other officials in authority when they were found doing “stupidness”. Mourners nodded in approval as he said, “We have to protect the vulnerable and the voiceless.”
Fr Dhereaux urged those present to choose an alternative way of life and to stand up for goodness, “The time has come for us to say leave us alone.”
Wondering just how much more the people of Port-of-Spain could take, he begged, “Leave our sons out of your turf war, and out of your gun running, and out of your drug running.
“Somebody bringing in the guns. Somebody bringing in the coke. Somebody bringing in the drugs and there is pain in the community.”
He said the time had come for residents and religious leaders, as well as non-religious organisations, to come together to protect their communities against this continued harm.
“We have to call out one another when we doing stupidness,” Dhereaux declared, adding, “We have to learn in this country to call out one another in the protective services, in the Coast Guard and you in the Air Guard and the guns are coming in, you in Customs, and the guns are coming in. Will you call out those who are allowing the guns to come in?”
He claimed to have courthouse clothes as he continued, “The guns and bullets don’t just appear in this country ... somebody seeing it and somebody bringing it in.”
To the shooters who may have been watching and listening yesterday, Dhereaux appealed to them to, “Put down your guns and open up your conscience.”
He begged them to understand the pain they had caused a family and community, and to one day seek salvation for snatching a life.
Graves’s daughter Zemira delivered the eulogy with her mother at her side. She acknowledged that her father wasn’t the best for some, “But was more than perfect for his family and I.”
Moving mourners to tears, Zemira said, “There is a space in my heart that will never be filled again because my dad is no longer here in flesh and blood with me.”
Revealing the remarkable love she had enjoyed as her father’s little princess, Zemira said, “All he wanted for me was to have a better life than he had.”
She said her father never wanted to leave her in pain, “If he could ease my pain from heaven, he would have done it.”
“You were my hero, my comforter, my shield, my protector, my walking diary and most importantly, my heartbeat. I love my dad and wish I could spend one more day with him,” the daughter said.
She vowed to make her guardian angel proud of her.
Graves was later interred at the Tunapuna Public Cemetery.