Senior Reporter
anna-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt
More than a month after eight men were shot in Gonzales, Belmont, resulting in four being killed, the area has been rocked by more gun violence.
The killing of Hasani Bonas and Jaheim Charlo yesterday evening at Agostini Street, Gonzales brought the number of men murdered in the area to eight within the last five weeks.
Bonas, 29, of Rudolph Charles Link Road, Belmont and Jaheim Charlo, 19 of Rigsby Street, Gonzales were shot multiple times as they stood on the street.
Kemba Bonas, who lives nearby and had been taking a nap, heard the gunshots and immediately called out to another son, instructing him to, “Call Hasani and see where he is.”
But she said, even as this was being done, her heart sank when a relative called to say, “Come over the road, they now kill Hasani.”
Yesterday’s shooting took place two streets away from where eight men were shot at Lange Street, Gonzales, Belmont, on June 2.
In that incident Jayden Reyes, 21; Peter Williams, 31; Kevin King, 33; and Johnathon Arjoon, 23; all lost their lives.
Another victim, Levi Morgan-Gloud, 20, had left the Belmont area and was living in Cunupia. But on July 3, when he returned to visit his mother and attend a friend’s wake at Upper St Francois Valley Road he was shot and killed.
On Thursday, Shaquille Perreira, 26, of Upper Belmont Valley Road was gunned down in the area.
Yesterday’s incident followed the same modus operandi after a car stopped and gunmen opened fire on the victims who had been standing and talking.
Residents expressed anger and outrage following the shooting, as they called for the authorities to do something about what was happening.
They said many were fearful to leave their homes for work and school daily.
One woman said, “Imagine people saying they fraid to walk the road in the night, but it not even safe to walk the road in the day ... this happening anytime.”
She claimed, “It have so much police patrols up here, yet still the gunmen getting through to continue killing.”
“How that happening?” she demanded.
Clad in a jersey still soaked in her son’s blood from where she had hugged him, Kemba Bonas said, “He was loving. He didn’t have a care in the world. Hasani was the child every mother would wish for.”
She said Hasani had always been independent and was not accustomed to waiting on her to provide. Instead, she said, the roles had been reversed as he was always there providing for her.
The mother said Hasani had just finished building his house at Link Road, Belmont, but he did not live long enough to enjoy it.
A long-time friend of Hasani, who wished to remain unnamed, said, “The gang killings up here is just too much.”
He said the Belmont and Gonzales communities were considered Sixx and Seven territories, and it was a fight for turf and drugs that was fuelling the senseless killings, with innocent people paying the price.
He said, “Black men just killing out one another.
“I sure they don’t even know what for.”