When ra­dio an­nounc­er Bur­ton Justin Dookhi signed off from his 6 am to 9 am shift on Talk City 91.1fm on Sun­day, his mind was on a cel­e­bra­tion.

Dookhi left the ra­dio sta­tion to meet the par­ents and stu­dents of the Holy Name Con­vent Port-of-Spain Crick­et team, which he coached. They were all head­ed to La Ve­ga to cel­e­brate the stu­dents’ suc­cess in the re­cent sea­son, ex­am­i­na­tions and the fact that one of the stu­dents had earned a schol­ar­ship.

But it all end­ed in tragedy when Dookhi went to re­trieve a wind ball that had gone in­to the lake dur­ing a ca­su­al crick­et game short­ly af­ter 4 pm.

He got the ball and was mak­ing his way back to the shore when he went un­der.

His friends fran­ti­cal­ly went in to try to save him but when he fi­nal­ly resur­faced and was tak­en back to the shore­line, they were un­able to re­vive him.

Videos of at­tempts to res­cue and re­vive him were post­ed on so­cial me­dia, prompt­ing some to state that the in­cor­rect CPR tech­nique was used.

An am­bu­lance took him to the Cou­va Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where he was pro­nounced dead.

Dookhi’s death sent shock­waves across both the school com­mu­ni­ty and the me­dia fra­ter­ni­ty, with sev­er­al me­dia per­son­al­i­ties ex­press­ing shock and grief as news of his death spread.

Dookhi, 40, had been a Math­e­mat­ics teacher at the Char­lotte Street catholic girl school since 2003.

His pas­sion for sport helped dri­ve the school’s crick­et team’s for­ma­tion. He was al­so the foot­ball team coach and was in­volved in net­ball at the school as well.

A state­ment ex­press­ing con­do­lences from the school ad­min­is­tra­tion said Dookhi “made a mark on the school by his im­mense in­tel­li­gence, his high en­er­gy, and his un­matched sense of hu­mour and spir­it. He served as a foot­ball coach and was the dri­ver be­hind the for­ma­tion of the crick­et team in its present in­car­na­tion. Mr. Dookhi as crick­et coach laid the foun­da­tion for the team’s present suc­cess and forged tight bonds with the stu­dents and their par­ents.”

The state­ment added, “His pass­ing has left a void not on­ly at Holy Name Con­vent but to the na­tion as a whole. We have lost one of our most bril­liant and tal­ent­ed young men who be­lieved in build­ing com­mu­ni­ty and giv­ing of his tal­ent and ex­per­tise for the build­ing up of oth­ers.”

La Ve­ga Es­tate has al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Dookhi’s fam­i­ly and friends in a post on its Face­book page yes­ter­day.

Mean­while, The me­dia house which em­ployed him, TTT Lim­it­ed al­so is­sued a state­ment on Mon­day fol­low­ing Dookhi’s pass­ing.

TTT said, “Justin was one of those mul­ti-tal­ent­ed peo­ple with an abun­dance of en­er­gy and quick wit, ex­celling in what­ev­er he did.”

Dookhi, who start­ed at the me­dia house in 2006 when it was then known as the Caribbean New Me­dia Group, co-host­ed the morn­ing show “First Up” on Talk City 91.1FM and C Tele­vi­sion along­side Jessie-May Ven­tour and Fazeer Mo­hammed, and an­chored many sport­ing events for C TV, most re­cent­ly the 30 minute show C Sports Ex­tra in 2018. He al­so served an an­nounc­er at Sweet 100.1 FM.

The Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go al­so is­sued a state­ment ex­press­ing con­do­lences fol­low­ing Dookhi’s pass­ing.

His fu­ner­al is to be held to­day.