After two failed attempts at his life, gunmen from his Pitman Lane, Gonzales, neighbourhood yesterday pounced on 21-year-old Kyle Williams and fatally shot him.
Last December, gunmen shot him in the mouth leaving him with bullet fragments in his jaw. In September last year, Williams was shot in the back after a “strange jeep” was seen in the area.
Speaking with the media yesterday, Williams’ aunt, Sherry Ann Trotman, said she was forced to raise him after his parents died.
She added that it had been hard for her raising her sisters children along with her five. On arrival at the crime scene yesterday Trotman disregarded the caution tape and attempted to make her way home but was stopped by police officers.
After being consoled by neighbours Trotman was allowed to leave the cordoned off area. She lamented that the killing of her nephew was on the shoulders of the police who after numerous reports failed to act.
“I don’t want to hear allyuh, allyuh know what going on and not doing nothing,” Trotman cried.
Also speaking with the media was Williams’ sister, Andrea, who said there was an ongoing war in the area between men who were once schoolmates.
She added her brother had two matters pending, one for shooting and another for possession of cocaine, and with the war in the area he was forced to remain indoors or just outside his home.
“This is not the first time or the second time, this has been going on too long. It is overbearing. The police know everything that is going on and they are not doing anything about it.
“We are women and we can’t even walk the road. I have to pay a driver for my children to go to school, which is right down the road. You could tell me that is right? The police have to do something about it because everyone need justice,” Andrea said.
She said the people responsible for the war were not from the area but were fuelling the war for reasons unknown.
She recalled having to duck for cover in March last year after gunmen opened fire on her home. Since then she has been back and forth and after 6 pm no one ventures outside.
The ongoing war claimed the life of a schoolboy last year. Yakini Charles, 12, was shot and killed on his way home from school on September 15.
According to police reports, Charles, a Form One Tranquility Government Secondary School student, was heading back to his home at Pitman Lane, Gonzales, around 8.30 am when he was shot in the back along St Andrew Lane, Gonzales.
Charles ran along Olton Road after being shot but collapsed and was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital by a truck driver who saw him lying on the roadway. Charles died while being treated.
Williams too died at hospital and is believed to have been a witness to a murder that happened in the area about two years ago. Police suspect that was the motive behind the attempts on his life, culminating yesterday morning.
According to police reports around 9.30 am yesterday residents heard gunshots and later found him bleeding at the side of the road.
Williams, who was released on bail a few months ago, was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he died.