RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

& JENSEN LA VENDE

As he swept up shat­tered glass from in front of his dead son’s busi­ness place, Andy Guer­ra sobbed silent­ly, whis­per­ing, “Oh God, why do you take the good ones?”

His friend lat­er took the broom from his trem­bling hands and start­ed to sweep, but up­on see­ing blood through the shat­tered door­way, the friend al­so could not con­tain his grief, mut­ter­ing, “Why they didn’t stop shoot­ing when they see the child?”

Guer­ra’s son, Moru­ga busi­ness­man En­ri­co Guer­ra, and his five-year-old daugh­ter, Ani­ka, were shot dead on Tues­day night by a masked gun­man who fired 17 bul­lets at En­ri­co’s Cor­ner Mart at Poui Trace, St Mary’s Vil­lage, Moru­ga.

The killings pushed the toll for the year to 401, 22 more than at the same pe­ri­od last year.

While po­lice were pur­su­ing a lead last evening, in­ves­ti­ga­tions were said to be at a sen­si­tive stage.

Ani­ka, a preschool­er, was shot mul­ti­ple times on the left side of her face, her low­er back, and her arm. Po­lice be­lieve the bul­lets were meant for her fa­ther, who had re­fused to ac­cede to cer­tain de­mands.

The child suc­cumbed to her in­juries at the Princes Town Hos­pi­tal at 10.20 pm, less than half an hour af­ter the shoot­ing. Guer­ra died on the spot in­side the min­i­mart lo­cat­ed on the ground floor of his home.

Po­lice said Guer­ra had been out­side with his friend Justin We­st­on, 30, of St Mary’s Vil­lage, at 9.45 pm, when the gun­man opened fire on them. Guer­ra’s wife, Anasta­cia Hamil­ton, was in­side the min­i­mart at the time comb­ing her daugh­ter’s hair.

Po­lice re­port­ed that when the gun­shots start­ed, Guer­ra tried to es­cape by run­ning in­side his mart, but was close­ly fol­lowed by the masked gun­man.

Hamil­ton took cov­er, try­ing to shield her daugh­ter as gun­shots ric­o­cheted around them. When the gun­fire stopped, Guer­ra was ly­ing dead but Ani­ka was still alive.

We­st­on suf­fered a gun­shot wound to his right fore­arm and was dis­charged from the hos­pi­tal.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the site yes­ter­day, for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) coun­cil­lor and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist Fran­cis Paul, a close fam­i­ly friend, was among those gath­ered.

Paul wept as he hugged Andy Guer­ra and lament­ed the sense­less loss of lives.

“This is heart­less,” Paul said.

“Words can’t de­scribe. How they could kill that ba­by girl.”

Paul ex­pressed frus­tra­tion with the state of crime in the coun­try.

“Some time ago, they had to­tal polic­ing. Why the po­lice don’t have road­blocks? The crim­i­nals mov­ing in ve­hi­cles, if they have road­blocks they will find them. This thing is fright­en­ing. This is my part­ner’s son and grand­child.

“We wish that the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty could feel what we feel­ing now. The av­er­age per­son not feel­ing safe. All over Trinidad hot now, you are not safe in your own house, that is un­fair. This is mad­ness.”

Re­flect­ing on the eco­nom­ic im­pact of crime, Paul con­tin­ued, “You don’t see all the busi­ness­es clos­ing down? Peo­ple pay­ing tax, as you open a new busi­ness, or con­trac­tors come to work... Look them fel­las tax­ing, and they tax­ing. Look, in Lengua a fel­la walk­ing with a gun in his waist. All con­tracts in Moru­ga be­ing taxed. If we know about it, how po­lice don’t know? Is mad­ness tak­ing place in this coun­try.”

He said crim­i­nals were roam­ing freely and “armed mer­ce­nar­ies” were tak­ing in­no­cent lives.

“Those crim­i­nals don’t care about par­ty card. Look, my part­ner cry­ing. The crim­i­nals are get­ting away with it. That not right. It not right. The po­lice have to do the in­ves­ti­ga­tion. I want them to catch them, block roads, kick down doors, bring in the army, have joint pa­trols. Is every day peo­ple are be­ing killed. There are armed mer­ce­nar­ies in Trinidad, and they will buy a gun and shoot you down,” Paul said.

Speak­ing briefly at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, yes­ter­day, En­ri­co’s moth­er, Hes­per Al­i­dar­soo, said she was prepar­ing to leave the coun­try to cel­e­brate her wed­ding an­niver­sary.

“I was at the hair­dress­er when I got the call. That is my first child and last grand­child in there,” she said, point­ing at the un­der­tak­er’s ve­hi­cle with her rel­a­tives.

Al­i­dar­soo said be­fore her grand­daugh­ter was born, her son would “wine down low,” but all of that changed for his “princess,” to whom he ded­i­cat­ed his life.

She said the dou­ble killing had left her feel­ing sur­re­al, as she nev­er ex­pect­ed to be at the FSC deal­ing with the mur­ders of her child and grand­child.

Moru­ga coun­cil­lor Joseph Lo­rant al­so ex­pressed sor­row, writ­ing on so­cial me­dia: “May you have the strength at this time to over­come this. En­ri­co was in­deed a good per­son who loved his daugh­ter dear­ly. May their souls rest in per­fect peace.”

The po­lice were hunt­ing un­der­for a sus­pect last night.