Those were the words of grieving grandmother Goolaby Sookhu as she reacted to the discovery of the lifeless body of her only grandson, fisherman Shiva Ramdeo Thursday.
Ramdeo’s decomposing body washed up on Thursday morning along the Point Fortin coastline. The body of 21-year-old Brandon Kissoon was also found in the same area.
The two were among seven lost at sea when gun-toting bandits forced them to jump overboard their fishing vessels on Monday night and stole their engines and boats.
All six stolen engines were recovered in Sea Lots on Tuesday morning after police used GPS on two missing engines to locate them. Four people, two men and two women, remain in police custody and Public Information Officer (PIO) of the TTPS, Superintendent Wayne Mystar said they will not be released as investigators are awaiting advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP) on what they should be charged with.
At the Orange Valley Fishing Depot, where the men set out from on Monday evening, dozens were gathered under two white tents.
Several people told Guardian Media that while they were not related to the victims, they were there showing support. A short distance away, the Orange Valley Fish Market stood empty and locked as no fisherman has been out to sea to catch anything since the robbery on Monday.
“Men afraid to go out there, it don’t make sense you trying to make a dollar and they coming for you life,” one said.
Another fisherman called for justice saying, “They watching who killing who in town (Port-of-Spain) but they not seeing a mass murder happen in Orange Valley. Them bandit ent just kill we bredren, they kill this whole village.”
At the Ramdeo family home in Orange Valley, dozens of relatives and neighbours gathered, trying to bring some sort of comfort to the grieving family.
Sookhu, who is 68 years old, cried for her grandson, saying he was the only breadwinner in their family.
“You don’t treat people children so…You don’t even treat animals like that,” she said.
Shiva’s only sibling, Karishma Ramdeo criticised the T&T Coast Guard (TTCG) for not acting sooner after they were informed of the robbery. The TTCG has issued two press releases so far, stating they started their search for the men at 3 am on Tuesday.
But Karishma said they were “slack” and did not act quickly enough on the report.
“If the Coast Guard or the police had moved as soon as they got the news, they claim they went out early but I was out there from 5.45 am Tuesday, this happen Monday at 11 pm, if they moved on time, my brother and the rest of fishermen could have still been alive,” Karishma said.
She said she was told her brother’s body was badly decomposed due to the length to time he had spent in the water.
She said her family deserves to hear what transpired before her brother and his fellow fishermen were made to jump overboard.
“They (police) need to question them about what exactly they did with the boats, we want to know if after they beat them if they made them jump overboard because nobody from my brother’s boat made it back alive and we don’t know what happened.”
As for those responsible for Shiva’s death, she had this message: “I don’t ever wish bad on people but God don’t sleep and my brother and my family will get justice.”
The discovery yesterday brought the body count to four: Anand Rampersad, Leslie DeBoule, Ramdeo and Kissoon. Kissoon’s family said they were too distraught to speak when GML visited their Mc Bean home yesterday.
Still missing are Justin Kissoon, Jason Trevor Baptiste and Hemraj Alex Sooknanan.
