Fran­cis Joseph

Ken­neth Ro­driguez goes by the name of Span­ish. He was one of the "com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers," host­ed by then sports min­is­ter Roger Boynes at Crowne Plaza Ho­tel in 2006, to dis­cuss peace among gangs. Ro­driguez said on Wednes­day that he was not a gang leader, but in the true sense, a "com­mu­ni­ty leader." Now, he is run­ning scared be­cause he says that some­one wants to kill him. Ro­driguez, 36, lives at Beetham Gar­dens. He said he had al­ways been a will­ing part­ner to dis­cuss peace in the Laven­tille, Mor­vant, Beetham and Sea Lots. He de­cid­ed to go with oth­er lead­ers to Crowne Plaza to dis­cuss peace. He said most of the lead­ers who at­tend­ed that meet­ing were dead. These in­clud­ed Ker­win "Fresh" Phillips, Sean "Bill" Fran­cis, and Mervyn "Al­lam­by" Cud­joe.

The fa­ther of two, Ro­driguez said he knew them all. He is aware of what is hap­pen­ing, some­times he as­sists the po­lice in solv­ing crimes, and he says he is not in­volved in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties. Ro­driguez ad­mit­ted that he had cas­es pend­ing in court, but he had not been con­vict­ed. "I am not in­volved in mur­der and kid­nap­ping and rob­bery," he said. At age 17, Ro­driguez said he was near­ly killed. Dur­ing the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup, he said a po­lice­man, us­ing a shot­gun, shot him in both legs from close range. He said he was un­able to walk for two years be­cause of the wounds. Ro­driguez said he was one per­son from Beetham Gar­dens who want­ed to see things put right. He said just re­cent­ly, a po­lice­man was shot on the Beetham High­way af­ter vis­it­ing the near­by gas sta­tion. He said since that in­ci­dent, life had been hell for him.

"I used to sit on my street and watch every­body go by...Not so since that in­ci­dent," he said. "Since that in­ci­dent, I have to run and hide be­cause the po­lice seem to be tar­get­ing me. I am scared, some­one wants me dead." Ro­driguez said just re­cent­ly, a po­lice­man was in­volved in an ac­ci­dent on the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route in Laven­tille and some­one stole his ser­vice re­volver. He said: "The place got hot. I made a few calls and I got the gun back. I am al­ways will­ing and able to as­sist the po­lice. Some­times, I get the call and walk in­to the sta­tion to see the po­lice." What prompt­ed him to speak to the me­dia?

Through his at­tor­ney, Wayne Sturge, Ro­driguez qui­et­ly slipped in­to the Hall of Jus­tice, Port-of-Spain, on Wednes­day. He was not pleased that the main wit­ness in the Sam­daye Ram­per­sad mur­der tri­al, called his name. He ad­mit­ted know­ing some of the men charged with that crime. He was al­so as­so­ci­at­ed with Sean Fran­cis, with whom he was work­ing as a sub-con­trac­tor, build­ing hous­es in Beetham Gar­dens for the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion. He con­tin­ues to be a sub-con­trac­tor, and says he has noth­ing to do with crime and drugs. Ro­driguez said he was not fear­ful of crim­i­nals. "I do not get in their way, so there is no need to be fear­ful, but I am fear­ful of the po­lice," he said.