Tobago Police are probing a shooting of an 82-year old man during an arson attack which left 15 people homeless at Mt Pleasant yesterday. Injured pensioner, Daniel Roberts, who is partially blind, said yesterday he was lying in his bed when he was alerted by the sound of rapid gunfire.
“I got frighten so I didn't get up. The noise stopped and I started to bawl out for my grandson and them. About two to three minutes after that, it started back again like if they put in more bullets (in the gun) and that was when I got shot.
“I am an old man. I never have case going on with nobody. I ain't do nobody nothing, I don't know who they came for. I don't know their business but I'm glad to be alive, I'm living a second life," Roberts said, after he was discharged from hospital.
Eyewitnesses said they were awakened by a crashing sound, followed by rapid gunfire. They believe a molotov cocktail was used to start the fire to force the occupants out of the house. T&T Guardian was told around 3 am three masked gunmen, armed with automatic guns, alighted from a white Nissan Tiida and opened fire in the yard which has several houses.
Roberts was shot in both legs and the other occupants escaped without injury. Another relative, Marlon Sandy, also said the response from the Old Grange Police was poor. He said although the police station is located about two minutes way, police officers arrived on the scene about 45 minutes after the report was made.
"We called the station, police never meet here until about 45 minutes after. When we do see the vehicle, two SRPs pass us whoosh.
“Even when the officer came he didn't even have on a shoe. He was fighting to put on his boots and things like that. If the police did respond in the time that we called, they might have been able to apprehend somebody," Sandy said.
A Mt Pleasant resident told the T&T Guardian following this incident the community was bracing itself for reprisal shootings. Over the past months, the Old Grange Police Station have been recording numerous shootings in the district. However, they remain unsolved.
Investigations are continuing