Despite the flashing blue lights and siren, Curtis Harriot knew the men in a black X-trail that pulled their vehicle aside on the highway on Saturday were not police officers.
Harriot's last words to his friend who was in the driver's seat were, "Why you switch off, that is not police?"
Moments later, 35-year-old Harriot was shot shot dead. Harriot and his two friends were in a white Ford Ranger returning home after playing in a cricket match, when an X-trail came up behind their vehicle with blue lights and a siren similar to ones used by the police.
Thinking that it was a police vehicle, the driver pulled on the shoulder and switched off the vehicle along the northbound lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension, near the Debe roundabout. Two men armed with guns came out the X-trail. One of them, dressed in black tactical clothing, walked up to the driver's window and told him to switch off the vehicle. The gunman looked into the vehicle, pointed the gun at Harriot and fired several shots. He then returned to the Xtrail.
Harriot, a construction labourer, died at the scene. Police recovered seven spent 9 mmm casings at the scene.
At Harriot's Whiteland home, near Williamsville yesterday, several neighbours were gathered still trying to come to terms with his death. His sister, who lives in Tobago, declined to give her name to reporters, but said she asked the driver to tell her Harriot's last words.
"He said my brother turn to him and tell him 'why you switch off, that is not police.'"
She added, "I just wanted to know what my brother said if he at least call out and say God forgive me whatever it is, something and he said all he turn and say is that is not police. That is all he say and he say your brother bow down his head."
She said the driver told her that the gunman walked up to the vehicle, looked her brother in the face and "he put the gun in front of him (driver) and shoot my brother."
She said jealousy is the only reason why someone would want to kill her brother because he was doing well and had already built a two-bedroom house which is fully furnished.
Lamenting the amount of murders in the country, she said, "This crime situation in this country is very ..., it bad, it real bad now and honestly, you will never know how it feel until it hit home and it really hit home now because every day you watching somebody get murdered and I will watch it on news and say oh Father Lord, a next murder, but is when I get the news yesterday that my brother get kill on the highway, that's when I know how other people does feel when they get the news."
She immediately booked a flight and came to Trinidad. Harriot, who is fondly called Bachac, was expecting his first baby soon. Harriot's father, who is also named Curtis, said he never expected that his son would die in this way. However, he said villagers told him that a black Xtrail was seen in the area the night before. The father said his son played cricket with several clubs and was well liked in the community.
Officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region 3 are investigating.
