An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

While two pre­vi­ous at­tempts in 2024 and 2025 to kill Al­is­tar George failed, gun­men re­turned yes­ter­day morn­ing and cor­nered the fa­ther of two in Bel­mont and opened fire on him, killing him in­stant­ly.

The 28-year-old un­em­ployed man had been clean­ing and clear­ing an area along Ser­raneau Road, Bel­mont, around 9 am, when a car pulled up and two gun­men got out and be­gan shoot­ing at George.

With nowhere to run, George was un­able to es­cape. He died at the scene, while his car was rid­dled with bul­lets.

The gun­fire in­ter­rupt­ed the qui­et of the area and sent those in their homes seek­ing cov­er, as they prayed for the shoot­ing to end.

George was fa­ther to an 18-month-old boy and was ex­pect­ing an­oth­er with his com­mon-law wife.

One woman, who lives feet away, said, “It took me over an hour to come out­side. It was so scary.”

A fe­male rel­a­tive of George, who lives close to where the shoot­ing oc­curred, heard the gun­fire but nev­er dreamed he was the tar­get. She re­called bawl­ing up­on see­ing his bloody body ly­ing on the road. George, she said, had been asked to clean up the pop­u­lar junc­tion as one res­i­dent want­ed to host a birth­day par­ty this week­end.

The screams of griev­ing rel­a­tives could be heard as they ar­rived at the scene.

Mourn­ing George’s loss, rel­a­tives said he had lived his en­tire life in the area and while he was “as ig­no­rant as any­body else,” they de­nied know­ing if he was a mem­ber of/or af­fil­i­at­ed with any gang.

Her eyes full with tears, one of the women said George’s mur­der was “the fi­nal straw for me.”

She said the killing had ce­ment­ed her de­ci­sion to move out of the area.

“I am so fed up los­ing loved ones and friends to the gun vi­o­lence up here. I cyar count them on my hands and toes any­more...is so much. I don’t know what to tell my son when he come from school,” she said.

“Al­is­tar was his favourite un­cle...every­thing was he. When I cook, he would make sure I take out food first for his un­cle. He loved foot­ball, and he and his un­cle would al­ways be out­side play­ing.”

Claim­ing George was a lov­ing, loy­al and fair per­son, one rel­a­tive said, “He nev­er liked ad­van­tage.”

A male res­i­dent wiped his tears be­fore head­ing in­to his home, de­clar­ing, “He was a re­al good youth.”

One woman, who has been rent­ing in the area, said she on­ly knew George as “Dark­ie.”

Claim­ing he had been noth­ing short of “re­spect­ful and nor­mal,” she said he was al­ways help­ing out around the com­mu­ni­ty.

Look­ing on as crime scene of­fi­cers col­lect­ed ev­i­dence, she said, “I does blame po­lice for the crime. I dun­no why they don’t just pick up the body and go. They do­ing all that and does nev­er get a lead on who did it, so I feel they does just be wast­ing time.”

Point­ing to the group of uni­formed of­fi­cers stand­ing near­by, she added, “I think gov­ern­ment just pay­ing peo­ple salaries for noth­ing, while law-abid­ing cit­i­zens like me, cyar get noth­ing.”

She said the po­lice were aware the area was a known a hotspot, yet there had been no in­crease in mo­bile or foot pa­trols. “Crime is pay­ing...noth­ing else is pay­ing.”

The shoot­ing al­so forced the ear­ly clo­sure of the St Fran­cois Girls’ Col­lege at St Fran­cois Val­ley Road, as par­ents/guardian were con­tact­ed and ad­vised to col­lect their chil­dren.