An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­nal­isa.paul@guardian.co.tt

An ar­gu­ment over out­stand­ing monies for land­scap­ing work is what po­lice be­lieve led to the death of Jerod Bran­don Ti­wari on Mon­day.

His rel­a­tives were un­able to hold back their tears at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James on Tues­day, say­ing the 20-year-old did not de­serve the death he got.

One fam­i­ly mem­ber said, “He was just try­ing to make an hon­est liv­ing.”

De­scrib­ing him as a lov­ing and ex­treme­ly car­ing per­son, his step­fa­ther, Ter­rence Ti­tus, said, “He was an ex­treme­ly help­ful per­son. Any­body who asks him to do any­thing around the neigh­bour­hood, he would help them.”

He said this could have been avoid­ed if those who were ow­ing Ti­wari had paid him.

Ti­tus added, “It is so sad to see a young man who is help­ing peo­ple lose his life over a few dol­lars.”

Ti­wari, who lived at Blue Basin Av­enue, Diego Mar­tin, was em­ployed with the Forestry Di­vi­sion.

Rel­a­tives said up­on com­ple­tion of his dai­ly work, Ti­wari would “do a lit­tle side hus­tle” by cut­ting trees and tend­ing to the yards of res­i­dents in the area.

A re­port said around 1 30 pm on Mon­day, Ti­wari went to work at a house at Riv­er Es­tate, Diego Mar­tin.

He re­port­ed­ly got in­to an al­ter­ca­tion over the non-pay­ment of monies owed to him for land­scap­ing ser­vices.

Po­lice said a man, who Ti­wari knew, walked up to him and dealt him a sin­gle stab to the left side of his chest with an un­known ob­ject.

As the sus­pect ran off, Ti­wari slumped to the ground.

Ti­wari’s friend, who was pass­ing by, re­spond­ed to the shouts of sur­round­ing res­i­dents and took the in­jured man to the St James Med­ical Com­plex, where he died.