SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Nathan Pierre, the man who walked in­to Courts to buy a tele­vi­sion but was shot and nev­er able to walk again, has died.

Pierre spent al­most two and a half years in a wheel­chair await­ing jus­tice.

On De­cem­ber, 17, 2023, Pierre was shot by a stray bul­let that was dis­charged from the gun of a po­lice con­sta­ble in the carpark of Courts Mega Store in El So­cor­ro.

Hav­ing spent 28 ag­o­nis­ing months con­fined to a wheel­chair, Pierre, 34, took his last breath on Ward 16 at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal on Tues­day.

“I am so heart­bro­ken. Nathan did not live for jus­tice to pre­vail in this shoot­ing…that is what is hurt­ing me. He had a heart of gold. Now he is gone for good,” said a tear­ful Sherice Lawrence, Pierre’s com­mon-law wife of six years, dur­ing a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia In­ves­ti­ga­tions Desk. Lawrence said the good times and mem­o­ries she shared with Pierre pro­vid­ed some calm, but af­ter his bur­ial on Sun­day, she ex­pects a rough road ahead.

In Feb­ru­ary, Pierre spoke about his life tak­ing a down­ward spi­ral af­ter be­ing told by doc­tors that he would nev­er walk again.

The shoot­ing had left him har­bour­ing a bit­ter feel­ing to­wards the po­lice, who he de­scribed as “ruth­less and of­ten cov­er up for one an­oth­er.”

While Pierre saw him­self as a bur­den, Lawrence con­sid­ered him her pride and joy.

Pierre was one of four peo­ple shot in the Courts carpark, two of whom died- sib­lings Sinaya and Sime­on Lessey.

The bul­let pierced Pierre’s back, broke two ribs, dam­aged his kid­neys, sev­ered his spinal cord and re­mained lodged in his right shoul­der.

Po­lice con­sta­ble Sid­ney Roberts, 34, of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, was charged with the mur­ders and shoot­ing with in­tent to do griev­ous bod­i­ly harm.

Lawrence said she heard the court mat­ter is set to start in June.

A month af­ter the shoot­ing, Pierre ap­plied to the Crim­i­nal In­juries Com­pen­sa­tion Board for fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance, but was await­ing feed­back.

The board was cre­at­ed to pro­vide fi­nan­cial re­lief to vic­tims of vi­o­lent crimes and their de­pen­dents to re­build their lives.

While Pierre was fight­ing for his life in the hos­pi­tal, Lawrence said he re­ceived $25,000 from the com­pen­sa­tion board, which she would have to use for his bur­ial.

“All I am left with is wor­ries and an­guish.”

In Feb­ru­ary, Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty di­rec­tor David West said the au­thor­i­ty was in­ves­ti­gat­ing the shoot­ing.

“Wit­ness state­ments were tak­en, and med­ical re­ports re­ceived. Noth­ing from the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre as yet,” West said then.

‘Why do bad things hap­pen to good peo­ple?’

Pierre’s com­mon-law wife re­called that weeks af­ter mov­ing in­to Laven­tille to make a fresh start, Pierre went to Courts to buy a tele­vi­sion set for the fam­i­ly as a Christ­mas gift.

While walk­ing through the carpark, Pierre was struck by a stray bul­let, which changed the course of his life.

As the bread­win­ner in the fam­i­ly, Pierre had been forced to sur­vive on a month­ly $2,000 dis­abil­i­ty grant from the Min­istry of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, which bare­ly paid his bills, bought gro­ceries, sent his two chil­dren to school and pur­chased his med­ica­tion and med­ical sup­plies.

Every month, he said he spent $1,500 on painkillers and dress­ings to treat the five bed sores on his back.

Lawrence said in ear­ly March, the bed­sores be­came in­fect­ed, and Pierre was ad­mit­ted to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, where he spent a few days seek­ing treat­ment.

He was lat­er dis­charged.

“Nathan begged to go home. He had a great fear of hos­pi­tals. He kept say­ing he pre­ferred to die at home in his fam­i­ly’s pres­ence rather than in the hos­pi­tal,” Lawrence re­called.

She said that Pierre knew his body was giv­ing up.

Days lat­er, Pierre’s health took a turn for the worse, and he was rushed to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

“The in­fec­tion had spread to his bones, and his blood count and blood pres­sure kept drop­ping. Al­so, his heart wasn’t get­ting enough blood, so his or­gans start­ed to shut down one by one. Then he slipped in­to a co­ma and re­mained un­con­scious for a week be­fore pass­ing away,” Lawrence re­count­ed.

Lawrence said it pained her heart to see Pierre suf­fer for more than two years with­out get­ting jus­tice.

“That shoot­ing af­fect­ed our lives in so many ways. We were robbed of our hap­pi­ness. Why is the wheel of jus­tice so slow in this coun­try?” she said.

De­spite Pierre’s con­di­tion, Lawrence said her love for him nev­er fad­ed.

“It’s so un­fair. Every day we have to live with this pain and grief. Why do bad things hap­pen to good peo­ple? Nathan was a good hu­man be­ing who had a heart of gold. He did not de­serve this.”