Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Instead of celebrating Mother’s Day, a Princes Town mother spent yesterday grieving the loss of her son, who was gunned down at their home the day before.
Wiping away tears at her St Julien Village home, Anika Brathwaite struggled to understand why her son, Xavier Braithwaite, 32, the younger of her two children, was murdered.
The father of two was ambushed and shot as he arrived home after liming with friends around 2.50 am on Saturday.
Brathwaite said she had messaged him just 15 minutes before, but he did not respond. She heard a gunshot and immediately ran outside.
His slipper was in the road. She then saw him lying in a neighbour’s yard opposite their home. He was gasping for breath, and she noticed a gunshot wound near his hip.
Afraid the assailants would return, she moved him under a nearby car and ran back home to inform her daughter of what had happened.
“I moved him out of sight. I don’t know if they would pass back, so I protected my son too. So, I took him and I hid him under the car.”
While running back to her son, a police jeep stopped, and officers took him to the Princes Town Health Facility.
Speaking candidly, Brathwaite said her son was a marijuana smoker, but he was a good and humble person.
“Every single body that knows him, trust me, they have nothing bad to say about him. Imagine every single body in the neighbourhood took a day off yesterday, nobody didn’t go to work. That’s just to tell you how good he was. Anybody wanting help will know to come in this little shop here. My son was not a bad boy. He was a ladies’ man.”
She said her son’s two children, ages 11 and 13, did not live with him, as he and his wife had separated more than a year ago.
“Everybody who knows me, I don’t put words in my mouth to say what I say, but my son, he didn’t deserve that. And that coward, that coward will shoot my son. Don’t worry, the Lord will deal with all of that.”
She said her son operated a parlour in front of their home, loved to dress and that many people were envious of him.
Brathwaite said Mother’s Day will never be the same for her.
“I’m not celebrating Mother’s Day. I’m not cooking. I don’t have the energy to do nothing. I slept in his room last night and I had to drink and drink to knock out to sleep...It is too hard. I’m not supposed to bury my child. He’s supposed to bury me.”
She believes someone who knew her son was involved in his death, and even if the police fail to give her justice, she said she would not rest until those responsible are apprehended.
