​An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­nal­isa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Al­though he was not per­fect and had not al­ways walked a straight path, Dar­rel Mar­cus Bou­caud had been work­ing hard to turn his life around for his chil­dren.

The 36-year-old fa­ther of two was shot dead as he stood in the gallery of his home around 10.15 pm on Tues­day night.

He died at the scene.

The un­em­ployed man re­port­ed­ly re­turned home 15 min­utes ear­li­er and was chang­ing his clothes, when he re­port­ed­ly heard two cars speed past the house at Symond Val­ley Road, St Ann’s.

Rel­a­tives yes­ter­day said Bou­caud went out to see who had dri­ven to the turn­ing point which was a short dis­tance away.

A re­port said as the ve­hi­cles drove past, two gun­men alight­ed from a white X-trail and opened fire on Bou­caud, hit­ting him sev­er­al times at point blank range.

Speak­ing with re­porters at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James yes­ter­day, a male rel­a­tive said, “He wasn’t a hun­dred per cent per­fect child but he was head­ing in the right di­rec­tion.”

He said Bou­caud was con­struct­ing his own home.

The rel­a­tive at­tempt­ed to de­scribe the trau­ma the fam­i­ly had been ex­pe­ri­enc­ing since, say­ing:

“The ex­pe­ri­ence wasn’t a nice one, it was re­al­ly trau­ma­tis­ing and stuff....the sound of the gun­fire...but we are try­ing to cope.”

Lament­ing the loss of life, a fam­i­ly friend added, “He was mak­ing a turn­around but this still end­ed up be­ing a shock­er.”

And while the chil­dren lived with their re­spec­tive moth­ers, the rel­a­tive said the fam­i­ly was ready to sup­port and guide the young­sters as need­ed.

In­di­cat­ing Bou­caud had a sense of hu­mour and had been a source of fun and laugh­ter for the en­tire fam­i­ly, the rel­a­tive said, “When­ev­er help was need­ed, he was there.”

Both men strong­ly be­lieved Bou­caud was be­ing tracked pri­or to the shoot­ing, and had been fol­lowed home as his killers knew when and how to lure him out.

Re­gard­ing the is­sue of crime, one man said, “I know they are try­ing to curb crime in a sense, but they have to check the bor­ders, all the il­le­gal points of en­try. We have to clamp down on that.”