Anna-Lisa Paul
Relatives of three teenagers killed in D’Abadie on Sunday say they don’t know why anyone would want them dead.
Andre Singh, 16, his brother Jamal Hackshaw, 19, and their cousin Keron Madoo, 16, were gunned down at around 4.50 pm. All three lived at Boys Lane, D’Abadie.
Mother of two of the victims, Nadia Hackshaw, 39, who has had to be medicated since the murders, said she was not home when the shootings took place.
She said she last saw and spoke to her sons just before she left home that morning when she told them to organise their lunch, which they accustomed doing at times.
When she was asked if they had even spoken about being threatened or being afraid, Hackshaw said: “It had nobody to get away with them. They don’t get away with nobody.”
Andre was a student at El Dorado East Secondary, while Jamal had been planting and selling vegetables grown in their backyard. Keron was due to enroll in the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC).
“I will miss a lot...a lot...a lot... ” a tearful Hackshaw whispered.
Residents reported hearing rapid gunfire from an unfinished house and then seeing a white car driving away from the scene. The boys’ bodies were later discovered inside an unfinished house.
Hackshaw said she collapsed when she got the news of the murder and for more than half an hour was unable to move or comprehend what had happened.
She said her sons never gave her any trouble.
“They were good, good boys,” she insisted.
Grandmother of all three, Kathleen Bharath, said: “Is a shock still. Nobody ain’t get over it yet.”
She said what hurt the most was that the two younger boys were innocent.
“Them not in nothing,” Bharath said.
“I was inside watching television when I hear it. I just waited until the music finish and came outside and saw them.”
She later explained that the term music referred to the rapid gunfire.
“I was wondering who it was and what happened,” she said.
Bharath said when she saw the bullet-riddled, bloodied bodies of her grandsons, she couldn’t control herself.
Asked if the boys had been in trouble or involved in anything that could have led to their murders, she said: “I have no idea because as a parent . . . we as parents does be the last to know what is going on. I don’t know and cannot say.”
Forensic officers recovered 46 spent shells at the scene comprising 24 9 mm casings, 20 7.62 mm casings and two 5.56 mm casings along with a deformed fragment and two projectiles.
Officers from Homicide Bureau Region 2 are continuing investigations.