Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

The rel­a­tives of mur­dered Diego Mar­tin res­i­dent Odell Samuel say they are leav­ing ret­ri­bu­tion in the hands of God as they grieve.

Samuel, 24, was gunned down at a trans­porta­tion stop on the west­bound lane of the Au­drey Jef­fers High­way, out­side Movi­eTowne, Port-of-Spain, on Sun­day night.

Po­lice on pa­trol near PriceS­mart re­port­ed hear­ing gun­shots at 8.15 pm and on check­ing, found Samuel bleed­ing from gun­shot wounds on the pave­ment, with part of his body hang­ing over the edge.

A dis­trict med­ical of­fi­cer vis­it­ed the scene and de­clared Samuel dead.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors found 15 spent 9 mm shells at the scene.

At the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, yes­ter­day, Samuel’s rel­a­tives said they did not know what to say about his mur­der.

“I just want the Lord to take ac­tion. Let the Lord be the judge. Jus­tice be­longs to God,” one emo­tion­al rel­a­tive said.

An­oth­er rel­a­tive said his last mem­o­ry of Samuel was over the week­end, as he held his six-year-old daugh­ter and three-year-old son in his arms.

“That’s not how I will re­mem­ber him be­cause I just went to iden­ti­fy his body, but that’s how I want to iden­ti­fy him, with his smile and his bright shine.”

The rel­a­tives said Samuel worked at Peake’s Ma­rine as a main­te­nance man.

Po­lice from the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion I are con­tin­u­ing en­quiries.

Samuel’s killing brought the mur­der toll to 513 for the year thus far, com­pared to 541 for the same pe­ri­od last year.