KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

While homi­cide in­ves­ti­ga­tors probe a drug link in the mur­der of San Fer­nan­do fa­ther of one Rod­ney Charles, his fam­i­ly be­lieves vil­lagers lured him in­to their com­mu­ni­ty for gun­men to kill him over a years-old grudge.

Charles, 33, of Pa­pourie Road, Di­a­mond Vil­lage, died along Pic­ton Road, Di­a­mond Vil­lage, on Sat­ur­day night. Po­lice said two masked gun­men shot him sev­er­al times as he was burst­ing bam­boo, an age-old Di­vali tra­di­tion, at a res­i­dent’s home.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors learned that around 7 pm, a res­i­dent met Charles at the As­pire Chi­nese Su­per­mar­ket at Pic­ton Road, Di­a­mond Vil­lage. Charles told the wit­ness that his ve­hi­cle ran out of gas and stalled. The res­i­dent gave him two litres of gas and left. The wit­ness again met Charles lim­ing at a bar at Pic­ton Road. 

He told po­lice he re­turned home around 9.15 pm, and 10 min­utes lat­er, Charles came to his home in his sil­ver-coloured Mit­subishi Lancer, say­ing he came to burst bam­boo. 

Charles, the res­i­dent, the res­i­dent’s 10-year-old son and neigh­bour were all burst­ing bam­boo in the yard when around 9.40 pm, two gun­men wear­ing dark cloth­ing and masks ap­proached Charles and be­gan shoot­ing at him.

Dil­lon Ho­sein, 30, who stood near­by, suf­fered a gun­shot wound to his right arm dur­ing the in­ci­dent. Po­lice took Ho­sein to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where doc­tors treat­ed and dis­charged him. 

Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Ram­rat­tan viewed Charles’ body and or­dered its re­moval to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal mor­tu­ary, pend­ing an au­top­sy at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, Port-of-Spain.

Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tors re­trieved 23 9mm bul­let cas­ings, one 9 mm bul­let, a white Hyundai cell­phone and oth­er items from the scene.

Charles’ death was one of many in the com­mu­ni­ty over the years and ac­cord­ing to his moth­er, Marie Mo­han, the cul­prits were a group of young men who feel car­ry­ing around guns and killing peo­ple was a “rank­ing thing”.

Mo­han told Guardian Me­dia it was the same gun­men who shot one of Charles’ friends a few years ago, fol­low­ing a mi­nor scuf­fle in the vil­lage.

“These fel­las young and is a rank­ing thing. It is not re­al­ly no gang or drugs. They threat­ened to kill him (Charles) two years ago,” Mo­han said.

She said some­one told her that five min­utes be­fore the gun­men shot Charles, one of the men he hung out with sud­den­ly be­gan chas­ing him, telling him to “Go from here.”

“Ap­par­ent­ly, they did not want him to get shot in the yard. They car­ried him there and kept him for the gun­men to come and kill him.”

Charles’ wife, Sasha Charles, said it was strange that her hus­band died along Pic­ton Street, as he nev­er hung out in that area. She re­called that he was at a rel­a­tive’s home in Gol­con­da on Sat­ur­day and told them he had to take her to wash be­cause they did not have a wash­er. 

How­ev­er, she does not know why he end­ed up there and no one is say­ing what hap­pened.

“He was lim­ing, watch­ing them burst bam­boo. He was sit­ting on the bon­net of the car. He left by his aunt in Gol­con­da at 7.30 and came here. They said that two guys came from the op­po­site di­rec­tion and start­ed shoot­ing him from be­hind, and he fell for­ward. I do not know why. I can­not say why,” Sasha said.

Sasha said some­one called her at 9.50 pm and told her Charles had been shot and an am­bu­lance was on the way. But when she ar­rived at the scene, she found him ly­ing in the road with gun­shot wounds to his face, hands and back.

“He nev­er told me any­one threat­ened him re­cent­ly. He had an al­co­hol prob­lem, where he drinks. He takes his drink, come home and park up. He did not have time with any­body. He comes home and sleep.”

While po­lice sus­pect a drug link, Sasha said her hus­band smoked mar­i­jua­na but did not sell it.