Bevon Shel­don Woods was not in­volved in any crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty his fam­i­ly said.

In fact, they sus­pect that he was mur­dered when he re­fused to join a lo­cal gang in his area de­spite pres­sure from some of his so-called friends.

Woods, 34, was killed around 2 pm on April 30 as he walked along Jack­son Hill, East Dry Riv­er, Port-of-Spain.

Re­sid­ing smack in the mid­dle of one of the al­leged gang hot spots be­ing fought over by the Six and Sev­en Gangs, Woods was shot mul­ti­ple times as he re­port­ed­ly walked home.

Woods was shot sev­er­al times as he walked home in an area that is known to be a bat­tle­ground and al­leged hot spot for the Six and Sev­en gangs.

He was re­port­ed­ly shot in the back of the head and died in­stant­ly.

While in­ves­ti­ga­tors were yet to as­cer­tain the mo­tive be­hind Woods’ death up un­til yes­ter­day, his un­cle Dr An­tho­ny Woods said, “I think his friends were en­cour­ag­ing him to join the gangs.”

In­ves­ti­gat­ing of­fi­cers ini­tial­ly spec­u­lat­ed that the killing was a re­sult of the gang war that flared up in the Laven­tille area with­in re­cent weeks.

Speak­ing with re­porters at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James yes­ter­day, Dr An­tho­ny Woods said his nephew’s ef­forts to walk the straight and nar­row could be what ul­ti­mate­ly end­ed up cost­ing him his life.

“I don’t know if that is what caused the prob­lem, so at the end of the day, he seemed to be on the right track. But cir­cum­stances like this where my nephew is now dead... I am here now to give sup­port to my sis­ter; this is how it goes,” he said.

Claim­ing the de­ceased had been gain­ful­ly em­ployed in the pub­lic sec­tor for the past 13 years, Dr Woods said de­ci­sions now had to be made re­gard­ing the fu­ture of Woods’ three chil­dren, aged eight, six, and four.

This, he said, would be done in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Woods’ moth­er and com­mon-law wife.

Lament­ing T&T’s crime sit­u­a­tion, which he said was out of con­trol and ruth­less, Dr Woods added, “It is a bunch of sense­less­ness, num­ber­ing them­selves Six, Sev­en and Eight. I won­der where are they count­ing to go?” he asked.

Dr Woods, a mor­ti­cian, added, “Young men in T&T need to adapt them­selves to know who they are, and I think it is the lack of fa­ther­hood.”

Claim­ing the ab­sence of a strong male pres­ence in the fam­i­ly struc­ture is to blame for many young men get­ting in­volved in gangs, he said, “I think they are lack­ing man­hood to re­al­ly what they are for. The moth­er might try, but the fa­ther lend­ing sup­port is re­al­ly where you get that rais­ing a child bet­ter. It is a fam­i­ly is­sue, and it is not get­ting any bet­ter.”

Dr Woods said while T&T would al­ways be his home­town, the coun­try’s crime rate was sim­ply too much for such a small ter­ri­to­ry, and it was bur­den­some for the pop­u­la­tion to con­tin­ue en­dur­ing.