The re­lent­less wave of vi­o­lent crimes in Carlsen Field is threat­en­ing its agri­cul­tur­al lifeblood.

Farm­ers say that the vi­o­lent home in­va­sions, rob­beries, and mur­ders have struck at the heart of the area’s econ­o­my, caus­ing a se­vere down­turn in sales for pro­duce and small busi­ness­es.

Once a thriv­ing hub for live­stock, crops, and poul­try, Carlsen Field, res­i­dents say, has be­come a ghost town, with the liveli­hoods of those who re­ly on the agri­cul­ture sec­tor in lim­bo.

For months, armed crim­i­nals have been on a ram­page, steal­ing crops, live­stock, poul­try, ma­chin­ery, equip­ment, cash, jew­ellery, and oth­er valu­ables from farms and homes.

Ex­cept for oc­ca­sion­al thefts of crops and an­i­mals, the com­mu­ni­ty had felt safe even af­ter the pan­dem­ic.

In this des­o­late com­mu­ni­ty, homes and farms are scat­tered, mak­ing every­one an easy tar­get.

Carlsen Field has ap­prox­i­mate­ly 160 farm­ers, with sev­er­al homes dot­ting the land­scape, some hid­den be­hind tow­er­ing grass and trees.

This year, there have been four mur­ders, spark­ing fear among res­i­dents.

In Jan­u­ary, Rolan­do “Shorty” Suther­lands, 44, a CEPEP work­er, was gunned down a short dis­tance from his Carlsen Field home while on his way to work.

Three months lat­er, Odelle Lal­man-Bap­tiste, 30, was ab­duct­ed, and hours lat­er, her body was dis­cov­ered near­by. She had been shot in the head.

In June, 21-year-old Sa­van­na Dy­er’s body was found at Xeres Road.

On Ju­ly 8, 2024, 27-year-old Christo­pher Chris­t­ian was killed when he strug­gled with ban­dits who shot him in his chest dur­ing what po­lice de­scribed as a failed home in­va­sion.

Chris­t­ian’s fa­ther, Matthew Perez-Chris­t­ian, was al­so at home at the time of the in­ci­dent.

Most re­cent­ly, on Sep­tem­ber 16, Raidal Per­sad, a me­chan­i­cal en­gi­neer, was found in his Au­di sedan, slumped over the dri­ver’s seat. Eight spent 9 mm shell cas­ings were re­cov­ered by the po­lice.

Per­sad was mur­dered less than 25 feet from a stall where Nicky Samuel sells fruits and veg­eta­bles.

Samuel had just closed her busi­ness for the day when she heard the shots in­side her home. Cu­rios­i­ty drew her to the crime scene.

“My blood ran cold when I saw the body. I was so scared,” Samuel told Guardian Me­dia dur­ing an in­ter­view on Tues­day.

Had she been sell­ing at the stall, Samuel said, she could have been wound­ed or killed.

“It’s get­ting ridicu­lous now. Peo­ple are fear­ful for their lives,” she said, vent­ing her frus­tra­tion.

Since Per­sad’s killing, Samuel ad­mit­ted it has had a pro­found im­pact on sales.

“Busi­ness is very slow be­cause peo­ple are afraid to stop and buy. It’s killing busi­ness­es in the area,” Samuel lament­ed.

Khan: Com­mu­ni­ty
a haven for crime

Pres­i­dent of the Goat and Sheep Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion and the Carlsen Field Vil­lage Coun­cil, Shi­raz Khan, said thieves stole over $200,000 worth of an­i­mals and items from his farm and home.

He said loss­es suf­fered by oth­er farm­ers have been far greater.

The at­tack on the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty, Khan said, comes at a time when the in­dus­try is al­ready fac­ing soar­ing pro­duc­tion costs and chal­leng­ing weath­er con­di­tions.

Khan said he bor­rowed mon­ey dur­ing the pan­dem­ic to keep his farm afloat, but now crime has be­come the biggest bat­tle.

Farm­ers have in­vest­ed in CCTV cam­eras, bur­glar-proof­ing, alarm sys­tems, guard dogs, and some have even hired se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers to pro­tect their an­i­mals and prop­er­ties.

He ad­mit­ted that out­siders view Carlsen Field as a “killing field” — a haven for crime.

“Peo­ple are not com­ing to pur­chase an­i­mals any­more. The area just isn’t safe. The wave of vi­o­lence is dri­ving cus­tomers away. It’s stran­gling busi­ness­es.”

Khan added that the crime has forced a few farm­ers to leave the com­mu­ni­ty.

He al­so claimed that when a crime is com­mit­ted, the po­lice re­sponse is slow.

A poul­try farmer who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said his farm, which has no elec­tric­i­ty, has been un­der at­tack by ban­dits for the past four months.

The ban­dits have stolen 350 lay­ers val­ued at $25,000.

Sev­er­al re­ports were made to the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Unit, he said, but the thieves con­tin­ue to strike.

In June, the farmer said, thieves broke in­to his house and stole an air ri­fle, food­stuffs, and oth­er valu­able items, which he re­port­ed to the Ch­agua­nas Po­lice Sta­tion.

The farmer has stopped stock­ing up on gro­cery items.

“I just buy day-to-day gro­ceries... noth­ing in bulk. Every­thing they’re go­ing with. Every night… every night they’re com­ing. They are just jump­ing the fence.”

Hav­ing in­vest­ed over $500,000 in his farm, he ad­mit­ted that he puts his life in dan­ger by liv­ing on the prop­er­ty.

“I know I could meet my death… but my back is against the wall. This is my bread and but­ter, but the crim­i­nals have been killing my liveli­hood and dis­rupt­ing our lifeblood.”

Calls for po­lice to do more

Carlsen Field is min­utes away from the Prae­di­al Lar­ce­ny Unit and the Freeport, Ch­agua­nas, and Long­denville Po­lice Sta­tions.

Res­i­dent Kevin Phillip said the mur­ders have left the com­mu­ni­ty un­easy and shak­en.

Phillip took the day off from work, stat­ing that he did not want to leave his wife and daugh­ters home alone.

Sta­tis­tics from the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice showed there were 82 mur­ders in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion last year. There were al­so 423 rob­beries and 424 bur­glar­ies and break-ins re­port­ed.

“I feel in­se­cure,” said Phillip, who shied away from be­ing pho­tographed.

He said crim­i­nals have been giv­ing their com­mu­ni­ty a bad name.

“A bad stig­ma…it’s stained. We are cast out.”

Phillip said Carlsen Field has now earned the rep­u­ta­tion as “a dump­ing zone for bod­ies. A lot of peo­ple… they don’t want to come in the back here. The taxi dri­vers and all… when they hear where yuh liv­ing… Carlsen Field, they telling you plain they not com­ing in the back here be­cause they (crim­i­nals) are killing peo­ple.”

The fa­ther of three plead­ed with the Gov­ern­ment to in­stall CCTV cam­eras and street light­ing for pro­tec­tion.

For too long, he said, their com­mu­ni­ty has been ne­glect­ed.

Phillip said Carlsen Field should be giv­en a mo­bile po­lice unit.

When a mur­der or rob­bery is com­mit­ted in the com­mu­ni­ty, Phillip said the po­lice pa­trol for a few days.

“And when the place cool down… no po­lice again,” he said.

One res­i­dent, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, said gangs are op­er­at­ing in the area and tax­ing res­i­dents.

She said her cousin and un­cle have been asked to pay thou­sands of dol­lars so that no harm would come their way.

Res­i­dent Fran­cis Alexan­der said he sup­ports the pro­posed stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion, which would pro­tect cit­i­zens against home in­va­sions.

“I tell my wife, I say… once they come in and you could kill them, kill them and call me af­ter.”

Giv­en the crime surge, Alexan­der, a watch­man, said he comes and goes at all hours of the day and night, mak­ing him a prime tar­get.

On Fri­day, Guardian Me­dia shared the farm­ers’ and res­i­dents’ com­plaints about in­ad­e­quate po­lice pa­trols and de­layed re­spons­es to crime re­ports with the head of Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, Snr Supt Ve­na But­ler, who said “the in­spec­tor re­spon­si­ble for Freeport” had re­spond­ed to their con­cerns.

“He spoke about the fact that there are on­go­ing pa­trols. That is all I would say on that mat­ter,” But­ler said.

Ca­roni Cen­tral MP David Lee did not re­spond to ques­tions re­gard­ing crime in Carlsen Field. How­ev­er, fol­low­ing Per­sad’s mur­der, Lee, in a T&T Guardian ar­ti­cle, pledged to in­ten­si­fy po­lice pa­trols, street light­ing, and im­prove road con­di­tions to stem the tide of vi­o­lent crime plagu­ing the com­mu­ni­ty.