A 39-year-old off duty Special Forces regiment officer died around 1 am yesterday after being shot in the head in what police believe might have been a robbery gone sour.
According to police reports, Cpl Shervaun Charleau went with a 23-year-old Morvant woman to Fort George on Friday where he was having a bowl of soup and they were chatting. Around 10 pm when they were about to leave, a gunman approached and ordered the two to lie on the ground. Police said the gunman shot Charleau once in the head and then started rummaging in his car which was parked nearby. As the gunman continued rummaging in the car, the woman ran off and made her way to the St James Police Station where she reported the matter.
Officers of the Western Division Task Force responded to the report, but when they arrived at the scene the gunman had already made off with Charleau's gun. The officers took the bleeding man to the St James Health Facility where he was stabilised and transferred to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he later died. Police said regiment officers searched the bushy area on Friday night searching for the gunman but were unsuccessful.
Speaking with the media at their Oropune Gardens home, yesterday, Charleau's wife, Tracey Sankar-Charleau, said she was at the Queen's Park Savannah for a performance as a traditional masquerader when she was told that her husband had been shot.
Sankar-Charleau said she has not slept since and the hardest thing she has had to do was to explain to their four children ages 18 to eight that their father had been killed.
"He was a quiet person, ask anyone. He was always on his phone, on Facebook, even when he home you didn't know he was home. On December 26 we would have celebrated 19 years married and he was in the service 16 years now.
"I know the army will take care of the children, I just want his belongings so I can bury him and try to move on," Sankar-Charleau said.
In a media release issued by the T&T Regiment yesterday, the commanding officer and his members expressed condolences to the Charleau's family. The release stated that Charleau joined the military family in 1999 and became a Special Force Operator in 2004. Funeral arrangements for Charleau will be announced soon, the release added.
"The Regiment is committed to working with the TTPS to bring the perpetrators to justice. Anyone with information who can assist with investigating this homicide is urged to contact the nearest police station, the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment at 627-2781 or use 800-TIPS" the release stated.
Flashback–another soldier killed last year
Last year regiment officers hunted Dillon "Bandy" Skeete after he was deemed a suspect in the murder of a soldier, Lance Corporal Kayode Thomas. The lawmen stopped searching after Skeete was killed. They were adamant that his death was not an extra-judicial killing but another case of gang violence in the Laventille area, a claim dismissed by Skeete's relatives.
Thomas, 32, was shot dead on June 29, 2014, while on his way to his home in Beverly Hills, Laventille. Shortly after Thomas' killing, members of the regiment searched the homes of Skeete's relatives at Laventille, Champ Fleurs, Toco and Couva, seeking Skeete out. Skeete's brother, Duane, was also placed under scrutiny in Grenada and was held there for two days without charge and released without a proper explanation as to why he was detained. His attorney then told the T&T Guardian that Duane was being held on the request of the T&T authorities. Skeete visited the T&T Guardian's offices on July 14 to tell his side of the story. Moments after the interview was conducted, members of the Defence Force visited the T&T Guardian's St Vincent Street office looking for Skeete. They left after being told he was not in the building, but moments later the company received a call saying there was a bomb in the building.
On September 25, Dillon Skeete, 30; Joel Tash, 22, a would-be Special Reserve Police Officer; and Jamaican national Sherwin Thomas were killed. Sherwin Thomas was the cousin of Jamaican reggae singer Lewin "Louis Culture" Brown. Thomas and Brown were in T&T wrapping up filming of a movie in Laventille before Thomas was murdered.
An eyewitness to the killing said she was with nine men liming near Skeete's Unemployment Relief Programme office, at Desperlie Crescent, when two vehicles passed them. The woman said a marked police vehicle passed first, then an unmarked Nissan X-Trail passed. She said she then saw the drivers of both vehicles speak to each other before the marked police vehicle left. Occupants of the black X-trail then opened fire on the group of men after first ordering them to kneel with their hands in the air.