SASCHA WIL­SON

Con­stant­ly re­mind­ed of the ram­pant crime sit­u­a­tion via so­cial me­dia, the fam­i­ly of PH dri­ver Bri­an Hack­ett was al­ways con­cerned about his safe­ty.

Hack­ett, how­ev­er, fear­less­ly worked his car for hire for more than 20 years to pro­vide for his fam­i­ly. 

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, around 12.30 am yes­ter­day the fa­ther of five was hi­jacked, robbed and shot to death by two pas­sen­gers in Ste Madeleine. His killers es­caped in his sil­ver-grey Nis­san Ti­i­da. Hack­ett, 50, al­so known as Big­gy worked the San Fer­nan­do to Princes Town route. Po­lice said 12.30 am he picked up two men in Princes Town and was head­ing to­wards San Fer­nan­do.

Up­on reach­ing near a fruit stall along the M1 Ring Road, near Daisy Road, the men point­ed a gun at him and or­dered him to stop. Hack­ett tried to fight off the men and was shot sev­er­al times. 

An off du­ty mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cer was pass­ing in his ve­hi­cle when he saw the com­mo­tion and drove to the near­by Ste Madeleine Po­lice Sta­tion to get help.  How­ev­er, by the time the po­lice ar­rived on the scene the men had al­ready es­caped in the dri­ver’s Nis­san Ti­i­da. Hack­ett’s body was found on the side of the road. When Guardian vis­it­ed his Mara­bel­la home where he lived with wife and five chil­dren ages rang­ing from 12 to 25 years old, rel­a­tives were in a state of dis­be­lief.

“This is the same thing (crime) I see on Face­book not know­ing that it would hit home,” said his 21 year old daugh­ter who wished not to be named. She said her fa­ther was a hard work­er and would not have giv­en up his mon­ey or the ve­hi­cle with­out a fight. The ve­hi­cle be­longed to their mom. Giv­en the crime sit­u­a­tion, she said they were con­cerned for his safe­ty, but he was more con­cerned about earn­ing an in­come. She re­called that a few years ago he was robbed in Mara­bel­la. “He was very scep­ti­cal about who he would pick up.” While she felt the per­pe­tra­tors might nev­er be caught, she said, “But, if we do get jus­tice, I will say thank God.”

She al­so called on the au­thor­i­ties to en­force the death penal­ty. “When you find them is one thing and then the lawyers help­ing them. You don’t re­al­ly get jus­tice. So crim­i­nals have more rights than the law abid­ing cit­i­zens.”

An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be per­formed to­day at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, Port of Spain. Up to yes­ter­day af­ter­noon the killers were not ar­rest­ed and the car had not been found. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.