Living with the knowledge that her son Carlon Sooknanan might have met an untimely death due to his lifestyle – his mother yesterday said while it is not something she will ever be comfortable with, it was something she had long come to accept.
Sooknanan, 28, who was also known as “Pilato,” was shot dead by gunmen posing as police officers around 10.30 pm on August 13, at his Emon Lane, Valencia home.
At the time, he was being intimate with his girlfriend. Seconds before gunmen stormed the single-room dwelling, they shouted, “Police, police,” which prompted the frightened woman to move off Sooknanan.
Minutes later, he was dead.
The woman was unharmed.
Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James yesterday – Sooknanan’s mother Jenelle Estrada Dominique was unable to confirm if claims that a love triangle had been the reason why Sooknanan had been killed.
Unwilling to “put her head on a block” for her deceased son, she readily admitted, “This young boy…he just miserable.”
Claiming Sooknanan had “been in all kinda nonsense,” she continued, “You know how the young people go. When I say all kinda thing, is all kinda thing.”
Believing Sooknanan’s past had finally caught up with him, Dominique shared, “It not comfortable, but I was expecting it to be like how it is now.”
Having lost another son, Anthony George four years ago after he was kidnapped by Spanish-speaking men at sea during one of his many trips to Venezuela – Dominique said she was tired of warning Sooknanan to change his life.
“Somebody will bullet you down,” she recalled telling him, “Behave yourself, I been telling him that for the longest while.”
Sooknanan recently relocated to Valencia from Guayaguayare, as he had acquired a piece of land and was planning to build a house and raise a family.
To other mothers, she advised, “Don’t let their children rule them. Make sure and talk to them. If they don’t want to listen, it have a place for them at the end of the day. Don’t lie for your children, make sure of that. You don’t know what they have out dey and bring it inside to your home. He has nine other siblings.”
Dominique said Sooknanan’s dad never missed an opportunity to counsel him also, but it was never meant to be.
She laughingly disclosed his nickname Palito meant “little piece of wood” in Spanish and he had been blessed with it by her father when he was very young – but according to Dominique, “he died a hero.”