Two weeks after a house owned by Kenneth Maillard was firebombed, the 64-year-old was gunned down in Tunapuna on Wednesday evening.
According to a police report, shortly after 7 pm, Maillard was sitting near the gate of an apartment complex he managed at corner Ali and Centenary Streets when a lone gunman walked up to him and shot him several times. The gunman then escaped.
Upon hearing the gunshots the tenants of the complex called the police, however, upon the police’s arrival, Maillard was found dead on the scene.
Maillard’s relatives, who spoke to the media at the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Thursday said they were left baffled as to why anyone would want to hurt or kill him.
Ironically, at the time he was killed his sister had just sent a What’s App message to him wanting to discuss how “violent this world has become” not knowing that her brother was just gunned down.
Relatives said Maillard had no children and was never married and had always been a landlord.
They described him as a “decent man, with a great personality.”
At the scene of the crime, the apartment complex, about seven Cuban nationals came out to speak to the Guardian Media.
They all said they are confused as to why their landlord was killed.
“We rented from him. He was seated by the gate and we heard gunshots ‘pow pow’ I was cooking and when I came out I see him lying there dead, “ one of the elder Cuban women said.
A Cuban man added: “We see two men run up to him but we don’t know why.”
The Cubans said Maillard treated them well and he would be missed.
Investigations are ongoing.
