Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

A 65-year-old Trinida­di­an na­tion­al has been mur­dered in Harlem, New York, USA.

He has been iden­ti­fied as long­time side­walk jerk chick­en ven­dor An­tho­ny Brooks. Brooks al­so fixed elec­tric bikes for ex­tra cash.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports com­ing from New York, he was shot in the chest as he strug­gled with a gun­man who was at­tempt­ing to take his book­bag dur­ing a botched rob­bery on Wednes­day morn­ing.

He died a short time lat­er at Harlem Hos­pi­tal.

Brooks had been grilling up his usu­al batch of West In­di­an dish­es, which his fam­i­ly said he sold or gave away, at the makeshift stand he set up every day when the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

He had al­so set up shop on a cou­ple of milk crates un­der­neath a tent to fix the e-bikes cus­tomers brought him.

Ac­cord­ing to an ar­ti­cle in the New York Dai­ly News, Brooks had been a neigh­bour­hood fix­ture and many peo­ple were ac­cus­tomed to him sell­ing his food.

Rel­a­tives said the 65-year-old al­so do­nat­ed meals to those in need or who could not af­ford to pay.

Po­lice in New York sus­pect that the mug­ger be­lieved that Brooks had valu­ables in his book­bag and made a grab for it.

How­ev­er, the Trinidad-born ven­dor re­sist­ed and a strug­gle en­sued, re­sult­ing in the fa­tal shoot­ing.

The mug­ger then jumped in­to a wait­ing car and fled. How­ev­er, po­lice de­tained a sus­pect in con­nec­tion with the in­ci­dent.