Boxing Day murder victim Neil Williams, who lived in Tobago, and returned to share holiday greetings with relatives in Laventille, Port-of-Spain, was gunned down for standing on the wrong side of the road.The 35-year-old, a contractor from Castara Village, Tobago, grew up in the Laventille area but migrated to Tobago for a better life.
Relatives said Williams, alias "Pooney," was a casualty of an "up the hill versus down the hill" war in Trou Macaque. The relatives spoke to the media outside the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday.Williams was shot dead while liming near the Trou Macaque Community Centre around 1 pm. Two gunmen approached a group he was with and without warning opened fire, police said.
Williams, who had no children, would joke about having children with several women because he was a "lover boy," the relatives said, adding he was loved by the ladies, and he enjoyed it. "He wasn't no badman, no bad boy, nothing. Everything he had, he worked for it."See how he died? It is nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time. These children in Laventille right now going through a war, the top of the hill warring with the people at the bottom."That is madness and Neil get caught in the crossfire," the relatives said.
Blind man shot dead
The family of another man, Curtis Lewis, who was shot dead on Boxing Day at Trou Macaque, also spoke with members of the media at the Forensic Science Centre. Allison Figaro, the sister of Lewis, 44, said her brother was very independent, even though he was blind.Figaro said her brother developed an eye infection that caused him to lose the sight in both eyes.
"My brother was blind and he was loud. Oh God, he was loud. You could hear his mouth from a mile away. Everybody in the area knew him and he was a real down-to-earth person. Always laughing and would have you in good spirits," Figaro said.Lewis was shot dead while on his way home on Boxing Day. Police reports are that around 2 pm residents of Trou Macaque heard gunshots and found Lewis in a pool of blood in a track leading to his home.
Body in drain identified
In an unrelated incident, the body of a man found in a drain in Laventille last Saturday has been identified as that of 19-year-old Brandon Alexander.Around 8 pm last Saturday, members of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) were on patrol along Laventille Road,Laventille, when they came across the body lying in a pool of blood in a track near St Barbs. The man had gunshot wounds to the head.
A female relative of Alexander said he was a loving person, though he "had his mishaps here and there" and had been in trouble with the law a few times. The woman said in his last days on earth Alexander was trying to change, as he was behaving and reconnecting with his family."He was trying to be better...As to why anyone would kill him, I don't know," she said.
"He's from Maloney. I don't even now what he was doing up there. He used to tell us he was going by a female friend of his. But nothing more than that. He was somewhat secretive."The murder toll now stands at 402, according to the Homicide Bureau.