An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Al­though res­i­dents in the qui­et com­mu­ni­ty of Moo­nan Road, Waller­field, are ac­cus­tomed to hear­ing gun­shots, the steady vol­ley that rang out yes­ter­day morn­ing alert­ed them that some­thing was wrong.

Brav­ing in­ter­mit­tent rain­fall, res­i­dents ven­tured out of their homes just af­ter 9 am to find Ste­fon Joseph dead in his gold Nis­san Almera.

There were bul­let holes in the front of the car which had re­versed in­to the con­crete wall.

Joseph, 37, de­scribed as a very skilled straight­en­er and painter, had been liv­ing in the area for more than ten years.

Neigh­bours said the fa­ther of one was not known to be in trou­ble with the law or any­one else.

“He was re­al cool. He don’t do no­body noth­ing,” a res­i­dent said.

An­oth­er said Joseph had just left to pick up work­ers to take them to his home where he op­er­at­ed his garage when he was am­bushed.

As news of his mur­der spread around the com­mu­ni­ty, res­i­dents and some of Joseph’s cus­tomers ar­rived to ex­tend con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly.

One man pulled hard on a cig­a­rette and kept rub­bing his face and head as foren­sic of­fi­cers processed the crime scene and un­der­tak­ers loaded the body in­to their ve­hi­cle.

“Sense­less ... you take a man from his fam­i­ly ... for what?” he mut­tered.

Trucks try­ing to ac­cess a near­by quar­ry were de­layed for sev­er­al hours, while res­i­dents liv­ing near the mur­der scene were pre­vent­ed from go­ing to their homes un­til Joseph’s body was re­moved and his car towed away.

PCs Baksh and Salden­ha of the North­ern Di­vi­sion Emer­gency Re­sponse Pa­trol were the first of­fi­cers to ar­rive on the scene.