(Trinidad Express) Less than a month after he reported receiving threats against his life, 34-year-old Shazard Mannick was gunned down at the Original Sauce’s Doubles’ booth along the Southern Main Road, Curepe, while serving customers.
Mannick, police believe, was killed because he was a witness in a homicide which was expected to be brought before the courts soon.
This is because the 34-year-old, who also resided with his girlfriend in Curepe, had previously reported receiving threats at the same location where he was killed.
At about 9.30p.m. on Saturday, two men made good on the previous threats, and walked up to Mannick as he was serving customers.
They pulled out what was described as “long-guns” before opening fire at the 34-year-old.
They then fled the scene on foot.
Mannick was hit several times about the body, including his back, head, shoulders, and leg.
Mary Vanaphar, 52, of Sangre Grande, who was buying doubles at the time was injured in this incident as a bullet fragment struck her in her top-lip.
The police and emergency health services were notified and both wounded parties were rushed to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope.
Mannick was pronounced dead on arrival.
Vanaphar, police said, remains warded up to late yesterday.
Crime scene investigators recovered 17 spent shells on the scene.
Speaking to The Express yesterday, relatives, who asked not to be identified, said that Mannick was a father of one – an 11-year-old girl.
They said the killing had left them all shaken, and they were trying to come to terms with the incident.
“We are all very surprised by this. We are at a loss of words. We have a weeding next week Sunday that we were all looking forward to. One of our cousins is getting married. Now instead of enjoying the lead up to the wedding, we have a loss in the family. So it is hurting all of us,” relatives said.
Mannick was described as a hard-working man, who was very humble.
“He was outgoing, he liked to go fishing and hiking and those kind of outdoor things. But he will be most known as being a very humble man. He’s being selling doubles all his life, and he was proud of his work. He loved his work, he was never ashamed of it or anything. He loved to work, and it’s a family affair here. So when this happened he was doing his shift. He started at 7 p.m. and was expected to finish at about 11.30p.m. we typically don’t go beyond midnight these days because of the crime situation in this country, yet early in the night this still took place,” relatives said.
They could not confirm if Mannick was a State-Witness in a murder trial.
“He was a private person too, so I can’t tell you for certain that is the reason why he was killed. I can only tell you he had some words with some people by the booth a few weeks ago, but he didn’t make it seem like it was anything big,” The Express was told.
