Camille Clarke

Prac­tise was post­poned yes­ter­day at the Des­per­a­does pa­n­yard af­ter one of the work­ers con­tract­ed to move the steel­pan rack was shot dur­ing gang war­fare at Rudolph Link Road in Laven­tille.At­i­ba Pan­tin, of Diego Mar­tin, died while re­ceiv­ing treat­ment at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.His killing pushed the toll to 17.A re­port said around 11 am, Pan­tin, who was hired by a con­trac­tor, was mov­ing pan racks along with four oth­er men when gun­fire rang out.

Chavez Best, the dri­ver who em­ployed Pan­tin, was al­so shot in the up­per right side of his body, po­lice said. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Best re­mained in sta­ble con­di­tion up to late yes­ter­day.Faced with high crime and vi­o­lence in the Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty in 2009, Des­per­a­does had to flee their pa­n­yard's Au­di­to­ri­um and The­atre Cen­tre to hold prac­tice ses­sions in Bel­mont.

Mem­bers of Na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­on Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars Steel Or­ches­tra on Duke Street, Port-of-Spain, were al­so forced to abrupt­ly end Panora­ma re­hearsals when loud ex­plo­sions were heard in its catch­ment area last year.In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day at the pa­n­yard at Queen's Park East, man­ag­er of Des­per­a­does, Fin­bar Fletch­er, said Pan­tin was not a mem­ber of the band.

For the most, six peo­ple were at the pa­n­yard, speak­ing in qui­et tones."He was con­tract­ed to move the in­stru­ment and like he got caught in the cross­fire. Shots were fired while the truck was com­ing down to bring the pans down to prac­tise at Queen's Park East. That is all I know that it hap­pened while they were mov­ing it down," he said.Fletch­er said the play­ers no longer prac­tise at the pa­n­yard in Laven­tille.

"We have more racks to bring down be­cause there is on­ly a quar­ter of them here. The con­trac­tor is shak­en up and said they will move the rest of the racks to­mor­row (this) morn­ing," he said.Fletch­er said hope­ful­ly band mem­bers could start prac­tis­ing by to­day or to­mor­row or by Wednes­day for the lat­est."A lot of the play­ers heard and we were sup­posed to start here (to prac­tise at Queen's Park East) at 2 pm," Fletch­er said, as he looked at his wrist­watch. "Let them stay home and rest," he added.

When asked if he had any opin­ion on Pan­tin's death or the crime sit­u­a­tion, he said he did not "wish to com­ment at this time."Fletch­er said the band will prac­tise three or four tunes af­ter which the arranger will say which of the com­po­si­tions will be played at the Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion. "Prac­tise will be af­fect­ed for the day but not for the rest of the week. We have to con­tin­ue," he said.

A post-mortem on Pan­tin's body is ex­pect­ed to be done to­day at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre at Fed­er­a­tion Park. Homi­cide of­fi­cers are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.