(Trinidad Express) “Is bullets like rain up inside of here, Mr Sandy. We have to duck, run, dive, hide, roll, do what we have to do, just to make sure we don’t get shoot from rifle corn that does come over here almost everyday.”
This was the complaint from a homeowner in the Beverly Hills, Laventille, Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartments to National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy, who toured the troubled area yesterday.
Sandy, along with Collin Partap, the recently appointed Minister in the Ministry of National Security, and other ministry officials, yesterday visited the community to get a first-hand account from residents as gang rivalry began spilling into the streets of the capital city last weekend.
The tenants said they are forced to live in fear as gang rivalry has reignited in the Laventille community.
They accused gangs in neighbouring Picton Road, Laventille, and environs of firing shots at them with the use of rifles and other assault weapons.
The residents identified several bullet holes in the walls of the apartments to the ministerial team.
Those who spoke did not want to identify themselves. They complained that their lives have been turned into a living hell, following the resumption of gang violence among warring Laventille factions.
“We can’t sleep, we can’t eat, and we can’t even walk in and out of our homes in peace because is rifle corn coming behind you. They are staying from quite over there (at Picton) with big rifles and shooting at anything in sight.”
“There are lots of children living in these apartments which have to constantly scream, run and hide when rifle corn is fired. We really want you to do something about this because innocent people could get kill,” a woman shouted as Sandy spoke with officers from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
In response, Sandy said he was concerned about the resumption of gang violence which has spilled into the capital city, claiming three lives last weekend.
He said he met on Monday with Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs and his team and instructed them to go into the gang-infested communities and arrest the situation.
