As screams rang out at the funeral of Grace Toussaint and three members of her family who were murdered two weeks ago in Chatham, Open Bible pastor Vickram Hajaree gave a chilling warning to citizens that a spirit of death was upon T&T.
Delivering final rites to Toussaint, 55, her husband Peter Baptiste, 59, son Jeremy Toussaint, 24 and mother Lena Peters, 75 at the Point Fortin Open Bible Church, Hajaree said it was the same spirit of sinfulness that led God to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah that was over T&T.
He said the murders and accidents that were happening daily throughout the country were signs of the end times, which were prophesied in the Bible.
"There is a spirit of death in our land today. Everyone can agree with that. There is a spirit of death in our land, people are dying daily.
"Some die from natural causes and then there are some who die in accidents. Everyday we see it in our society, in our community and on the roads. Then there are some who have untimely deaths.
"I believe in the Bible that says it is appointed onto man once to die but after death is the judgment but there are some people who have an untimely death," Hajaree said.
"If God does not judge this society, God will have to repent to the nation of Noah, God will have to repent to the nations of Sodom and Gomorrah because it is the same spirit that existed in the time of Noah and the same spirit that existed in the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is the same spirit that is existing in our time."
He said the country was now in the time when people did whatever felt good instead of what was right and have strayed away from the teachings of God.
He warned that if people did not end their bitter ways toward each other, forgive each other and repent, destruction would fall upon the country.
Although grief was etched on the faces of the hundreds who gathered, he reminded them that the Bible forbids believers to recompense evil with evil. Instead he advised them to forgive the person responsible for their pain so that they may find peace.
It was a quiet beginning to a saddening funeral but as four hearses bearing the bodies of the victims lined up at the church entrance, screams could be heard from different corners.
For Peter's daughter Ozra, the pain was too much as she followed her mother's coffin, crying: "I begged her to stay with me." She later said in her eulogy that her mother lived with her in the US but because of the cold weather, she decided to return to Trinidad.
The massacre
?Toussaint and her family were discovered dead at their home at Chatham South Trace on July 16 by her father Patrick Jouba. Police believed they were killed on July 15 after Jeremy gave a statement to police a day earlier relating to the murder of his neighbour Stephon Sinnette.
Sinnette 33, was shot dead at his home on July 8. Police said they have searched several areas in Chatham and Point Fortin for the suspect but up to yesterday he was yet to be found.