An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

A rel­a­tive of Ronald Ram­jag, who was mur­dered by ban­dits dur­ing a home in­va­sion at the fam­i­ly’s Mara­cas, St Joseph prop­er­ty on Wednes­day morn­ing, re­vealed yes­ter­day that he es­caped the at­tack af­ter climb­ing on­to the roof and hid­ing un­der an eave un­til po­lice ar­rived.

This was af­ter he bar­ri­cad­ed him­self in a bed­room in an at­tempt to avoid the armed men who were at­tempt­ing to break down the door.

Ram­jag, of Guarat­ta Hill, Mara­cas Roy­al Road, St Joseph, was killed by the thieves af­ter they con­front­ed him dur­ing the break-in at 3.40 am yes­ter­day.

The vic­tim, who was un­mar­ried and had no chil­dren, was de­scribed by neigh­bours as “re­al good” with every­one in the tight-knit com­mu­ni­ty.

Ram­jag, who was be­lieved to be in his 60s, was de­scribed as a friend­ly, easy-go­ing per­son who could al­ways be count­ed on for any­thing.

Ram­jag was well-known for op­er­at­ing the fam­i­ly-owned Guarat­ta Mi­ni Mart for more than 40 years, and his killing left rel­a­tives and neigh­bours stunned.

Rel­a­tives were un­able to say ex­act­ly what was tak­en dur­ing the rob­bery, ex­cept for an un­known quan­ti­ty of cash and jew­ellery.

They said the ban­dits broke in down­stairs and van­dalised the cash reg­is­ter and once in­side the mi­ni-mart, would have had easy ac­cess to the liv­ing quar­ters up­stairs, where Ram­jag and an­oth­er rel­a­tive were asleep.

They said Ram­jag had been very pro­tec­tive of his fam­i­ly and an­i­mals and would have fought to keep them safe.

Rel­a­tives added that he would laugh and joke with every­one as, “he was a very nice guy, no lie.”

Peo­ple liv­ing near­by re­mained shocked yes­ter­day, as they said Ram­jag had been in good spir­its up to the clos­ing time of 8 pm.

Part of the sec­ond floor of the fam­i­ly house is still un­der con­struc­tion and ac­cord­ing to per­sons liv­ing near­by, “they were work­ing hard and build­ing lil bit by lil bit.”

One of the last few peo­ple to have seen and spo­ken to Ram­jag on Tues­day, said he was in good spir­its and noth­ing seemed out of the or­di­nary.

Pressed to say if Ram­jag had ever ex­pressed con­cerns about the crime sit­u­a­tion or fears of be­ing robbed, one man said, “Nev­er. He used to op­er­ate as nor­mal.”

The busi­ness re­mained closed yes­ter­day and rel­a­tives were un­cer­tain about what would hap­pen with it mov­ing for­ward.

A fe­male rel­a­tive said, “We are just very heart­bro­ken over this in­ci­dent, know­ing the kind of per­son Ronald was, it re­al­ly hit home. This man was al­ways help­ful, al­ways pleas­ant. He was hard work­ing and we are re­al­ly sad­dened.”

A neigh­bour kept his eyes care­ful­ly on pass­ing ve­hi­cles, as he said he too was fright­ened.

He said he op­er­at­ed a small food cart close by and now he had to be ex­tra care­ful.

“They could be watch­ing me too, yuh nev­er know,” he said.

“When I hear that this morn­ing that shocked me and I not pleased about it at all. The kind of per­son he was, that was not sup­posed to be.”

He asked, “Why peo­ple had­da en­vy peo­ple for?”

“Every­body try­ing to build up...peo­ple work­ing hard for what they want and the gen­er­a­tion now doh want to do that.

“In­stead, they just rob­bing and killing to get what they want.”

He added, “The gen­er­a­tion out there now is the worst, worst, worst. Some­thing re­al­ly wrong with them.

“Par­ents can’t even talk to them, as they pulling gun and cut­lass on them. Par­ents fraid their own chil­dren. Why that have to hap­pen?”