Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

As res­i­dents con­tin­ue to cope with last week’s trag­ic dou­ble mur­der, a peace con­cert aimed at pro­mot­ing heal­ing and uni­ty will be held to­mor­row at the Jade Court play­park in Cou­va.

The event, an ini­tia­tive of Na­tion­al Ex-Tem­po Monarch Bri­an Lon­don, will fea­ture sev­er­al per­form­ers, in­clud­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch Ter­ri Lyons, and is card­ed for 5-8 pm.

Con­firm­ing this yes­ter­day, Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil pres­i­dent, Bish­op Ezekiel Clarke, said he hopes the con­cert will send mes­sages of love and peace through­out the com­mu­ni­ty and the wider so­ci­ety.

Ex­plain­ing that Lon­don had con­tact­ed him the day af­ter the in­ci­dent about stag­ing the event, he said the con­cert is open to the pub­lic, but no al­co­hol will be al­lowed, the dress code is white and at­ten­dees can walk with can­dles. He as­sured there would be a strong po­lice pres­ence.

"The gen­er­al mes­sage is that there is hope. There is care. There is con­cern. We stand against crime. We stand against vi­o­lence. We want uni­ty in the com­mu­ni­ty," Clarke said.

While com­mu­ni­ty life has re­turned to nor­mal — chil­dren have re­turned to the park, and res­i­dents are go­ing about their dai­ly busi­ness — he said the trau­ma still lingers.

Thank­ful for the sup­port of the Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit, which con­duct­ed a coun­selling ses­sion with res­i­dents at the Lisas Gar­dens Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre on Sun­day, and mem­bers of the pub­lic, Clarke said that show of con­cern and care helped res­i­dents to heal.

"The state of af­fairs, not on­ly in Jade Court but in Trinidad and To­ba­go, mur­ders, rob­beries, home in­va­sions con­tin­ue to take place, and we all would walk the streets, prob­a­bly not in fear but very mind­ful and should be very vig­i­lant in all that we do."

Clarke said next week, mem­bers of the coun­cil and the po­lice will be hold­ing dis­cus­sions with res­i­dents about es­tab­lish­ing a neigh­bour­hood watch group.

Last Fri­day, just af­ter 2 pm, De­vaughn Tou­s­saint, 38, and his ex-girl­friend, Amelia Her­nan­dez, 34, were stand­ing at the trunk of her car parked along­side the play­field when a gun­man opened fire on them. The in­ci­dent, which was cap­tured on CCTV, showed the cou­ple run­ning in dif­fer­ent di­rec­tions as the shoot­er pur­sued Tou­s­saint, shoot­ing him sev­er­al times.

Her­nan­dez grabbed her three-year-old daugh­ter and ran through the play­park as oth­er chil­dren screamed and fled. She stum­bled, and as her daugh­ter watched, the gun­man shot her dead. The child stood frozen for a few sec­onds be­fore run­ning away. Her­nan­dez, a moth­er of two, had gone to Jade Court to pick up their daugh­ter, who was at Tou­s­saint's home. Po­lice said no one has yet been ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with their mur­ders.