Jensen La Vende

A man was killed in­stant­ly yes­ter­day af­ter a sign erect­ed out­side a church fell on him. He was lat­er iden­ti­fied as John "Ami­go" Matthews, 54, of Sawmill Av­enue, Barataria.

Eye­wit­ness­es told po­lice that around 12.45 pm, as many parts of Trinidad ex­pe­ri­enced heavy winds, the sign for The Gate Church, which had been erect­ed for over 20 years along the East­ern Main Road, Barataria, cracked at the base and fell on the man.

Math­ews was at­tend­ed to by a doc­tor who was dri­ving along the EMR and saw what hap­pened.

Work­ers at the near­by Cool Aire and Judy's Pet Shop told the me­dia that as the doc­tor be­gan ad­min­is­ter­ing CPR, an un­marked po­lice ve­hi­cle stopped and al­so as­sist­ed.

Passers­by and work­ers of the two busi­ness­es used their um­brel­las to shel­ter the doc­tor and of­fi­cers as they sought to re­move the sign off the man and help him.

While the crowd gath­ered, a marked po­lice ve­hi­cle was stopped and lat­er es­cort­ed the man to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, where he died un­der­go­ing treat­ment.

Em­ploy­ees at Cool Aire said Math­ews was called "Ami­go" as he spoke a bit of Span­ish. The men added that he was a "cool fel­la" who would do odd jobs in the neigh­bour­hood.

Em­ploy­ees at Judy's Pet Shop said Math­ews had moved in­to the area about two years ago.

"He liv­ing here about two years now. He would hus­tle lit­tle fruits and sell and was what you will call a 'go for,'" one of Judy's em­ploy­ees said.

A Cool Aire work­er said he had been work­ing at the busi­ness place for 24 years and the sign had been there since he had start­ed. He added that it was not the fault of any­one but a trag­ic ac­ci­dent. The man said every­one knew Math­ews and when the in­ci­dent hap­pened there was an out­pour­ing of as­sis­tance .