A man from Laventille was murdered in a drive-by shooting near his home yesterday afternoon.
According to police reports, around 2.30 pm, Roshaun Pierre was standing outside a shop along Old St Joseph Road near the intersection with Pashley Street in Laventille when the occupants of a car driving by opened fire.
Pierre was hit several times and died on the scene.
When a news team from Guardian Media visited the community, scores of residents gathered near Pierre’s body as crime scene investigators took photographs and collected spent shells.
A pregnant woman, identified by residents as Pierre’s girlfriend, was inconsolable as she screamed, wailed, and rolled around while lying on the ground under a tent a few feet away from his body.
Pierre’s father had to be restrained by heavily armed police officers as he ignored the caution tape installed by police officers and sought to run to his son’s body.
While police officers initially appeared hesitant to allow Pierre’s father the chance to see his son, they eventually briefly facilitated it as they (the officers) were jeered by curious onlookers.
“Leave the man. That is his only son. He only has daughters now,” one woman was heard screaming.
Several residents, who asked to remain unnamed, claimed that Pierre was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” as they maintained that he was not known to engage in criminal activity.
“I am an elder in the community and I could say that he was not in no gang thing. That is an innocent man get killed,” one man said.
A post-mortem will be performed on Pierre’s body at the Forensic Science Centre later this week.
Pierre’s killing raised the murder count for the year to 408.
Investigations are continuing.
