A Cascade man was gunned down while his wife was fighting for her life at hospital last night, having been beaten with a brick and chopped by the men who killed her husband. The couple was ambushed at Mt Hololo, Cascade, on Monday night.
The couple's two children watched on in horror as the men brutally attacked their parents as they walked through a track on the way home but were left unhurt, although they were severely traumatised.
According to police reports Anthony Henry, 35, his wife, Anika Kwanza, 29, and their two children, aged seven and four, had just returned to their home at Casablanca Road, Cascade, around 9.30 pm when they were jumped by two men armed with guns and cutlasses.
The men beat the couple, robbed them, chopped Kwanza and beat her with nearby concrete blocks, shot Henry and as he lay dying smashed his face in with a concrete block. All this they did while the children stood by watching.
During the attack, police attached to the Port-of-Spain Division responded to reports from residents.
But along the way two of their SUVs crashed near the Cascade River Gardens apartment complex and one officer fractured his arm.
The remaining officers managed to arrive at the scene to find the attackers still rummaging through the couple's belongings.
The killers shot at the police and ran off into the hills. Police called for air support but the national security helicopter could not help the police find the killers who used the knowledge of the hilly terrain to escape.
Speaking with the media at the scene, where Crime Scene Investigators recovered over 30 spent shells, Henry's brother Jefferson said some people did not fully grasp the seriousness of crime until it touched them personally.
"Me and him used to have the same view on crime. People only study about it or care about it when it affect them. No one does help otherwise.
"Look they beat that girl (Kwanza) and nearly kill she, she managed to escape and run. She was calling for help but when she reach no one was helping. She was just on the ground and people wasn't taking her on. If it was one of them family they would want people to help but like I said, they only want to help when things hit home," he said.
Henry added that his brother was a "normal" guy who kept to himself, adding that the killers were "demons in human form." He said his brother was a fisherman who also worked as a PH taxi driver.
Henry moved into the area three years ago and never mingled with residents.
While relatives suggest that the killing was as a result of a robbery, police believe he was involved in the drug trade.
Second son lost
Kwanza's mother, Gloria Smith, said the incident was reliving a nightmare. Another son, Brian, drowned under questionable circumstances last November 20.
Brian Smith, 30, was last seen alive after being involved a scuffle with members of the Engineer Battalion of the Defence Force at Western Main Road, Carenage. Two days later his body was found floating at sea near Alice Point, Chaguaramas, by prisons officers on their way to Carrera Island prison.
Two autopsies done confirmed that he died as a result of drowning. The second autopsy done by pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes suggested his death was "due to or consequence" of blunt force trauma injuries he sustained before entering the sea.
Des Vignes' findings on Smith's cause of death were consistant with those of his colleague Dr Eslyn McDonald-Burris, who performed the first autopsy. However, McDonald-Burris did not identify wounds to the front, side and back of Smith's head, which Des Vignes had suggested contributed to his death.
Added to Smith's frustration yesterday was the fact that her daughter lay unprotected at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
Relatives said even nurses at the health institution were fearful for themselves and Kwanza, who relatives said was in a serious condition. Kwanza suffered injuries to her face, neck and head. One finger on her left hand had to be re-attached while the first joint of another was severed.
