An­na-Lisa Paul

Strug­gling to hold back tears as she searched her mind for a rea­son as to why her broth­er had been gunned down on the week­end, the sis­ter of Justin Jee­tam is de­mand­ing jus­tice from the State.

And to the lone gun­man who pumped three bul­lets in­to the 27-year-old On-The-Job Trainee (OJT) around 5.30 am on No­vem­ber 10 at Sa­mi’s Gy­ros, Curepe - Kim Jee­tam begged, “Just tell us why please.”

Speak­ing from the fam­i­ly’s home at Boodoo Street, El Do­ra­do yes­ter­day, Kim said Justin along with his girl­friend Guytree Sama­roo and three oth­er friends had been re­turn­ing from lim­ing on the Av­enue, Wood­brook when they stopped to pur­chase break­fast gy­ros.

Claim­ing this was cus­tom­ary for the group, Kim went on, “Some guy just walked up to him and told him…to­day, you have to die.”

The moth­er of one said, “He shot Justin three times but he didn’t fall with the first two shots.”

Kim said as Justin raised his hand in a de­fen­sive move, the third shot pen­e­trat­ed his left arm and en­tered his chest.

Justin col­lapsed on the pave­ment and al­though he was rushed to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope by Sama­roo and the group, he was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival.

Jee­tam cel­e­brat­ed his birth­day on Oc­to­ber 18 and was em­ployed with MTS Cred­it Union, Aranguez for over five years.

Ve­he­ment­ly deny­ing her broth­er had been en­gaged in any il­le­gal/il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties and had no al­ter­ca­tions with any­one, Kim spec­u­lat­ed that his death could have been a case of mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty or as she put it, “The talk now is that there is a gang ini­ti­a­tion go­ing on and to prove your­self…whether it’s an in­no­cent or guilty per­son, some­one has to die.”

Ad­mit­ting Justin was a “car guy” and had been a mem­ber of the lo­cal Nis­san Y12 Club, she said he could al­ways be found at their events.

Urg­ing so-called friends and ac­quain­tances to speak the truth and stop spew­ing lies which are hurt­ing Justin’s fam­i­ly, Kim said he worked hard for every­thing he had.

She begged, “Please don’t drag his name through the mud. Every­thing he had, he worked for it, alone.”

Hav­ing re­cent­ly sold his car to pur­chase a pan­el van so he could have start­ed his sec­ond job on Mon­day, Kim said he was fo­cused on build­ing his home and set­ting aside mon­ey so he could have a big wed­ding.

Justin and Guytree would have cel­e­brat­ed their sev­enth an­niver­sary last Mon­day.

De­scrib­ing Justin—the last of three chil­dren and on­ly son for their moth­er—as a help­ful and lov­ing per­son whose favourite foods in­clud­ed bread and pota­toes, Kim said his favourite show was the Food Net­work’s Din­ers, Dri­ve-Ins and Dives which is host­ed by Guy Fieri.

Kim cried, “I be­lieve part of the dev­il is liv­ing or roam­ing Curepe…too much has been hap­pen­ing in re­cent times in that lit­tle strip.”

Al­though she is hold­ing out hope that jus­tice will be done in this case, Kim ac­knowl­edged that Justin’s killer may for­ev­er re­main at large.

How­ev­er, she wants the pub­lic to wake up and re­alise that times have changed and for per­sons to act ac­cord­ing­ly.

Chok­ing back the tears as she gazed at a pic­ture of Justin, Kim said, “This feels like a dream, like it’s not re­al. It’s al­most as if he will wake up and come home. He will al­ways be in our minds and live in our hearts.”

Look­ing at her own son who will turn 14 on No­vem­ber 27, Kim said while she just wants to keep him locked up at home—she knows she can­not de­prive him of the chance to live his life but she is scared about what evils are out there.

Jee­tam’s fu­ner­al will take place to­day.