Sascha Wil­son
Se­nior Re­porter
sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt
       

Res­i­dents of Tabaquite staged a protest yes­ter­day call­ing for the re­open­ing of the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion af­ter two mur­ders in three days.

The protest took place one day af­ter 73-year-old pen­sion­er Lutch­miper­sad Sookram was found dead in his home in what po­lice be­lieve was a home in­va­sion.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Julien Hall, 41, of Em­manuel Junc­tion, was stabbed dur­ing an al­ter­ca­tion at a bar in the com­mu­ni­ty on Sat­ur­day and suc­cumbed to his in­juries at the hos­pi­tal ear­ly Sun­day morn­ing.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the vil­lage yes­ter­day, res­i­dents and rel­a­tives of Sookram were in dis­be­lief over his mur­der.

Sookram’s son left him home around 6 am and went to work at a fur­ni­ture store in Pe­nal. When he re­turned home around 6.30 pm and un­locked the door, he fouond the en­tire house ran­sacked and his fa­ther dead on the bed.   

Rel­a­tives re­called that about five years ago, Sookram’s home was bro­ken in­to and some of his wife’s jew­el­ry was stolen. Sookram’s wife died a few years ago.

Due to his age and health is­sues, Sookram fre­quent­ly stayed at his daugh­ter’s home in Ca­paro. He re­turned home last week to at­tend an out­pa­tient clin­ic at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and planned to re­turn to his daugh­ter’s home this week­end.

Vis­i­bly shak­en over his broth­er’s death, Gabriel Beep­at, 68, said Sookram lived a qui­et and hum­ble life.

“You kill an old man like that? This is when the man is sup­posed to en­joy his life,” he said.

He lament­ed the crime sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try and Tabaquite.  

But res­i­dents said this lat­est in­ci­dent has left them an­gry.

Res­i­dent Sharen Badal-Ahyew ex­plained that four years ago, the sta­tion was re­pur­posed for the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit (CPU)and the of­fi­cers were re­lo­cat­ed to the Gran Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion. 

How­ev­er, she said, the CPU stopped func­tion­ing months lat­er, and now one po­lice of­fi­cer guards the build­ing.  Badal-Ahyew said the Gran Cou­va sta­tion now ser­vices two dis­tricts com­pris­ing eight to ten com­mu­ni­ties.

“We are say­ing we are fed up. We can no longer sit idly by and al­low the min­is­ter to take the res­i­dents for grant­ed. One mur­der is too much, min­is­ter. Give us the an­swers. Give us the dates and we want to know when we go­ing to feel safe in this neigh­bour­hood of Tabaquite,” she said.

Badal-Ahyew com­plained that the dis­trict was plagued with prae­di­al lar­ce­ny, house­break­ings and oth­er crimes.    

Res­i­dent Mon­i­ca Craw­ford, 85, who lives next to the Bras­so sta­tion said if there was a crime, res­i­dents had to take a taxi from Bras­so to Ch­agua­nas, Ch­agua­nas to Cou­va, and Cou­va to Gran Cou­va to file a re­port. 

Ca­paro/Mamoral coun­cil­lor John Leza­ma said they were promised that the sta­tion would have been re­opened.

“I do not know if the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice knows where this sta­tion is. But, I ask her to vis­it and open the sta­tion and ease the pres­sure off these res­i­dents,” he said.

At­tempts to reach Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds and the TTPS for com­ment were un­suc­cess­ful.