(Trinidad Express) A woman who lost her husband and her son in a shooting at Three B’s Drive, Piarco, claimed yesterday that, despite constant reports about being followed home by suspicious people, the police never responded.
Police said 11 of the 36 bullets fired at the father and son on Tuesday evening bore markings of the Regiment.
This is the third murder in the area since last week.
The deceased are Nigel Mootoo, 45, and his son, Nerkyle Mootoo, 19. Police said around 5 p.m., Nigel Mootoo, his wife, Margaret, and their other son aged five were in one car heading to their home. Their son Nerkyle was in his own car driving behind them.
Police said as both cars drove into Three B’s Drive they saw a silver grey heavily-tinted Nissan Tiida following them.
The car first pulled alongside Nerkyle’s car and occupants of the Tiida opened fire, forcing him to veer off the road and crash into a fence.
Nigel Mootoo then stopped his car, got out and attempted to run but two men from the Tiida got out as well, pursued him and shot him in the yard of his home.
The two gunmen then got back into the Tiida and fled the scene.
They left with nothing. Last week Monday (December 12), hardware store owner Chandan Ramjit, 51, was shot and killed while delivering bags of cement to a property at Three B’s Drive.
Nowhere to go
Speaking to the Express at the Forensic Science Centre, Federation Park, yesterday, Margaret Mootoo said following the shooting she picked up her son, placed him into a car and took him to Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, herself. At “Forensics” yesterday, however, she appeared inconsolable but still wanted to speak on behalf of the two men she lost.
“When I took my son Mt Hope he went in alive and he was brought out dead,” she sobbed.
She lamented that people had been following them home for a while but on Tuesday they struck. She said she could not figure out why they were being targeted as her son was a student of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) aspiring to repair fridges and air-conditioning units, while she and her husband had their own business in St Augustine.
“We have multiple reports in the station about people following us home,” she said.
“They come in to our businessplace and they followed us, but I don’t know if it’s bandits but they are only killing people in Three B’s Drive,” she said.
She said when the police were called about this they never come. The Express asked why she thought they were being targeted but she said she did not know.
“It have reports in the Piarco Police Station about how many times we see strange people coming,” she said.
“They need to hold these criminals and they (the police) are getting information and they know who it is but I don’t know why they cannot do anything because I don’t know, it is like they are afraid of these criminals,” she said.
She said the Piarco Police Station was a stone’s throw away from Three B’s and despite several calls their response was always tardy.
“We even begged for a police post inside here,” she said, adding that the police even advised them to move out.
“Move out and go where?” she asked.
“We have nowhere to go. We built our house, we have our life savings here. We did what we needed to do and the police need to get rid of these criminals and they don’t come,” she said.
The Express contacted both the Piarco Police Station and the Region Three Homicide Bureau over allegations of inaction made by Mrs Mootoo.
At the Piarco Station a police woman who picked up said she was not at liberty to divulge any information to the media.
The Homicide Bureau said they were unable to speak on the issue as well.
