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TWO shooting incidents on Sunday evening – one in Gonzales, Belmont and the other at the compound of the Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) – have left four men dead and two others wounded.
However, while police sources and relatives told Newsday four men were killed, the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) issued a press release on Monday afternoon saying three people were shot dead and three others injured.
Police reports said a group of men was liming near a school in Gonzales, Belmont after a game of football. Without warning, gunmen arrived in a car and began shooting. One man was killed and several others injured.
The injured men were taken to the PoSGH, but moments after their arrival, masked gunmen also reached the hospital in a car. While relatives of the wounded men and medics were trying to get the victims into the hospital's Accident and Emergency (A&E) department, the gunmen got out of their car and opened fire.
Three men were killed at the hospital and another man was shot and wounded.
However, the NWRHA release said on Monday that three people were killed. The release did not identify these victims by name and also did not identify those who had survived. The release said five individuals were initially brought to PoSGH for treatment with two being pronounced dead on arrival.
It said another victim was shot dead outside the A&E compound by the gunmen, while a relative of this victim was also shot but survived.
Newsday contacted police for clarification on whether it was four or three people killed, but up to press time, had received no response.
At the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Monday, Newsday met with members of four families who claimed their loved ones: Jayden Reyes, 21; Johnathon Arjoon, 23; Kevin King, 33; and Peter Williams, 31, had been killed in the Gonzales incident.
[caption id="attachment_1087524" align="alignnone" width="768"] SHOT DEAD: Jayden Reyes. -[/caption]
The police have since classified the shooting as gang-related and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds – who spoke to reporters during an impromptu press conference at the PoSGH at 11 pm on Sunday – said the attack was targeted and no hospital staff or members of the public were injured.
“Fortunately, no one other than persons who were brought here from the original crime scene would have been further injured at the hospital. So we were relieved of the burden of additional persons as innocent bystanders being caught up,” Hinds said on Sunday night.
'My boy was in no gang'
However, the mother of one of the dead men as well as his brother – who was shot and wounded at hospital – insisted her sons were not involved in any gang.
Speaking at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Jayden Reyes’s mother fought back tears as she criticised those who suggested her son was dead because he was a gangster. She asked not to be identified.
She said Reyes, who was in his third year of medical school, and was an employee of Republic Bank where he worked in its call centre, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I don't want them to lump my son as being a member of a gang. He was not a gang member at all!”
[caption id="attachment_1087523" align="alignnone" width="1019"] SHOT DEAD: Kevin King. -[/caption]
The woman said her son was a St Mary’s College graduate and aspiring paediatric surgeon who took some time off to “take a football sweat," near the school on Sunday, when a car pulled up and gunmen "just sprayed bullets.”
Reyes’s brother, a member of the TT Regiment, was nearby when the shooting occurred and ran to assist Reyes and the other victims, after the gunmen sped off in their car.
“He went with his brother to hospital. I think most of the victims were loaded in one van. When they got to the hospital and the victims were being off-loaded, a vehicle pulled up and the men finished the job. Jayden just happened to be in the same van with the person who they (the gunmen) really came for,” the woman said.
She added, “Jayden, at the time, was alive and speaking because he got shot in his leg. But when the gunmen came, they finished him off. His body is now riddled with gunshots.”
Reyes’s older brother sustained three gunshot wounds including one to his face. He was said to be warded at hospital.
Reyes’s mother said although she had some concerns about raising her sons in the Gonzales area, she ensured that they stayed on the straight and narrow.
“I born and grow in Gonzales all my life and I brought up my children in the same way, not to disrespect their surroundings.
“I have no problem with them growing up in that community because despite this ‘crime hotspot’ you could see all his achievements…those of both of my children. I didn't want them to ever be a product of their environment, but an example.”
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She said Reyes was looking forward to doing just that by graduating in July and then going to Jamaica to continue his medical studies so he could eventually show other boys in his community that anything is possible.
[caption id="attachment_1087605" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh speaks with reporters outside the Port of Spain General Hospital on Monday. At right is NWRHA CEO Major (ret'd) Anthony Blake. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB -[/caption]
“He was supposed to go in Jamaica in August. He was to come back and say, ‘look, I did it. If I could do it (succeed), everybody else could do it too.’ It's just so unfortunate that his life was cut so short at the tender age of 21.”
Reyes’s mother said he was on good terms with everyone and took an active part in the community.
Asked her thoughts on Hinds’s claim that people in the community were turning a blind eye to gangs, she said, “I've seen it in my community, but that is not my situation.”
Homicide Bureau head, Snr Supt Rishi Singh told reporters on Sunday night that a reward will be offered by the TTPS for information leading to the arrests of those responsible for the shooting.
Singh said the value of the reward would be disclosed on Monday, but up till press time, no such information was given by the police.
Relatives of King and Arjoon, who also chose to remain anonymous, said they do not expect anyone to help them get justice for the murders of their loved ones. Family members said they had little confidence in the police and claimed "there ain't no justice for poor people.”
Arjoon’s relative claimed her trust in the police was also eroded after a policeman threatened his life.
“Just last Friday a police officer told me he making a promise to me that he would come and put him (Arjoon) down. I had to ask him if he give birth to him, if he gave him life,” said Arjoon's relative.
She said if given the chance to speak with senior national security officials she would ask them to clarify what is a gang.
“They seem to be harassing some of these fellas and carrying them down for guns and they never getting guns on them. They're always raiding people homes and they never getting nothing. And it's the same thing over and over.”
One of King’s friends told Newsday that Hinds needed to speak with gang leaders and get them to put a stop to the killings. “They have the youths how they are today. So is them he have to talk to.”
 
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