Senior Reporter
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
Police are working to establish a motive for the shooting death of a 30-year-old Tunapuna mother and social media influencer who was gunned down on Saturday night while playing cards.
Police reported that Darriana Dow, known as Darri Boss, of Maraj Street, Pasea Extension, was at Strodes Bar around 10.30 p.m. on Saturday when she was attacked.
Officers said while she was playing cards, a gunman exited a Y12 AD Wagon with licence plate PDX 3459 and shot her. The shooter then got back into the vehicle and drove off.
Another woman who was nearby took Dow to the hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival.
When Guardian Media returned to the scene yesterday, there were four people at the bar; however, none of them wanted to speak with the media.
A neighbour who identified himself as Sham Sammy, a friend of Dow since she moved into the area a few years ago, said he was saddened by her killing, describing her as “a nice girl.”
While relatives said they were unable to give an interview so soon after her death, Sammy said Dow was not a “bad girl.” He said she would “lime” and cook with him and his friends regularly.
“The most she does do is come out dey and lime by the bar with we for a lil bit. We go cook, she go eat. I doh know she as no bad girl. She have she ways, but you know.”
Sammy added that Dow had prepared potato salad to go with fried rice and stewed chicken that he and his friends had cooked hours before her killing. He said the community knew Dow as “a nice child.”
“She is not a drinker. She is not a smoker. She would just come and sit down and lime and play a little all fours, that is all she would do, play a lil all fours.”
Dow was well known on social media and regarded as an influencer. On Instagram, she had 34,000 followers and was known for posting pictures showcasing her style and love for fashion.
She was the mother of a toddler boy. Police had no motive yesterday for Dow’s murder but were pursuing several leads.
In an unrelated incident, a Siparia man was murdered at his St Helena home yesterday morning.
Police said Jayden Alexis was at his apartment when, around 7.30 a.m., gunmen stormed in and opened fire, killing him.
The two murders, along with another in south Trinidad, took the national murder count to 320 for the year.
‘Criminals don’t fear SoE’
Meanwhile, criminologist Dr Malisa Neptune-Figaro said criminals do not appear to be concerned about the State of Emergency (SoE).
“I don’t think any of it is being taken seriously by those who commit those acts when it comes to the SoE. I need to see the drastic reduction because crime fluctuates. And to say that it would be solely because of the SoE, I need to have more details about what the SoE entails to understand what it was aimed at. So, if it was about entire crime reduction, and the Government implemented something geared towards overall levels of crime—but we’re not sure exactly what this SoE is targeting.”
Neptune-Figaro said the SoE is difficult to assess because of the lack of information about the reasons behind this supposed emergency.
“An SoE is supposed to be a short-term thing, a short-term process or strategy. It cannot be used to resolve anything,” she said, adding, “That is the difficulty that criminologists, as well as the public, are actually having a problem with.”
The State of Emergency was extended for a second time after being passed in the House of Representatives yesterday with 27 Government votes in favour and 12 Opposition votes against. There were no abstentions.
Attorney General John Jeremie, who piloted the motion, said the SoE remained a critical national-security instrument to support active operations targeting criminal gangs and organised crime networks.
He stressed that the measure was never intended to serve as the Government’s crime-fighting strategy but rather as a temporary platform enabling law enforcement agencies to execute sensitive and ongoing tactical initiatives.
