Jensen La Vende

Af­ter two failed at­tempts at his life, gun­men from his Pit­man Lane, Gon­za­les, neigh­bour­hood yes­ter­day pounced on 21-year-old Kyle Williams and fa­tal­ly shot him.

Last De­cem­ber, gun­men shot him in the mouth leav­ing him with bul­let frag­ments in his jaw. In Sep­tem­ber last year, Williams was shot in the back af­ter a "strange jeep" was seen in the area.

Speak­ing with the me­dia yes­ter­day, Williams' aunt, Sher­ry Ann Trot­man, said she was forced to raise him af­ter his par­ents died.

She added that it had been hard for her rais­ing her sis­ters chil­dren along with her five. On ar­rival at the crime scene yes­ter­day Trot­man dis­re­gard­ed the cau­tion tape and at­tempt­ed to make her way home but was stopped by po­lice of­fi­cers.

Af­ter be­ing con­soled by neigh­bours Trot­man was al­lowed to leave the cor­doned off area. She lament­ed that the killing of her nephew was on the shoul­ders of the po­lice who af­ter nu­mer­ous re­ports failed to act.

"I don't want to hear al­lyuh, al­lyuh know what go­ing on and not do­ing noth­ing," Trot­man cried.

Al­so speak­ing with the me­dia was Williams' sis­ter, An­drea, who said there was an on­go­ing war in the area be­tween men who were once school­mates.

She added her broth­er had two mat­ters pend­ing, one for shoot­ing and an­oth­er for pos­ses­sion of co­caine, and with the war in the area he was forced to re­main in­doors or just out­side his home.

"This is not the first time or the sec­ond time, this has been go­ing on too long. It is over­bear­ing. The po­lice know every­thing that is go­ing on and they are not do­ing any­thing about it.

"We are women and we can't even walk the road. I have to pay a dri­ver for my chil­dren to go to school, which is right down the road. You could tell me that is right? The po­lice have to do some­thing about it be­cause every­one need jus­tice," An­drea said.

She said the peo­ple re­spon­si­ble for the war were not from the area but were fu­elling the war for rea­sons un­known.

She re­called hav­ing to duck for cov­er in March last year af­ter gun­men opened fire on her home. Since then she has been back and forth and af­ter 6 pm no one ven­tures out­side.

The on­go­ing war claimed the life of a school­boy last year. Yaki­ni Charles, 12, was shot and killed on his way home from school on Sep­tem­ber 15.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, Charles, a Form One Tran­quil­i­ty Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School stu­dent, was head­ing back to his home at Pit­man Lane, Gon­za­les, around 8.30 am when he was shot in the back along St An­drew Lane, Gon­za­les.

Charles ran along Olton Road af­ter be­ing shot but col­lapsed and was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal by a truck dri­ver who saw him ly­ing on the road­way. Charles died while be­ing treat­ed.

Williams too died at hos­pi­tal and is be­lieved to have been a wit­ness to a mur­der that hap­pened in the area about two years ago. Po­lice sus­pect that was the mo­tive be­hind the at­tempts on his life, cul­mi­nat­ing yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports around 9.30 am yes­ter­day res­i­dents heard gun­shots and lat­er found him bleed­ing at the side of the road.

Williams, who was re­leased on bail a few months ago, was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he died.