RALPH BANWARIE
Salybia villagers were both sad and angry yesterday evening, after father and son, Lloyd and Ryan Ramkissoon, were shot dead during an argument with a neighbour.
Police were assisted by soldiers during a manhunt for the suspect in the forest off Langusta Trace after the attack, but he managed to elude them and was still in hiding up to last night.
According to police reports, Lloyd, 47, and Ryan, 19, were shot several times about the body by the suspect around 7.45 am yesterday, during an argument with the suspect over his pitbulls, which were attacking their rabbits and ducks and villagers because they were being allowed to roam free around the village.
One of the dogs attacked Ryan on Thursday night and bit him on his buttocks, but family members went to his rescue and he was taken to the Sangre Grande Hospital, treated and discharged.
Yesterday, family members told the T&T Guardian, the Ramkissoons stopped the neighbour as he drove his Navarra pickup along Langusta Trace. They told him of the dogs’ attack on Ryan, villagers and their animals and asked that he secure his dogs in future. The man reportedly became angry and an argument started. Things became so heated that the man, a farmer, pulled out a gun from his waist and shot Lloyd and Ryan several times.
Lloyd was shot in his back, shoulders and chest and when Ryan tried to intervene he was shot in his legs. As Ryan fell to the ground the neighbour shot him in both shoulders and the chest. The neighbour then got into his vehicle and drove off.
Father and son were taken up by relatives, placed in the tray of a van and rushed to Sangre Grande Hospital. They both succumbed to their injuries in the operating theatre.
A party of police led by ACP Surujdeen Persad, Supt Phillip, ASPs Joseph and Robain, Ag Insp Lutchman, Sgts Vekash Ramkissoon and Christopher Edwards, Cpl Kassiram and PCs Dave Bhagan, Rodney, Ali, Gadar and Mootilal visited the scene.
They were joined by officers attached to Homicide Region II, based in Arouca and led by Cpl Jones, and soldiers. However, their search was unsuccessful.
A distraught Joanne Ramkissoon, Lloyd’s sister, was still trying to come to terms with the brutal attack yesterday when the T&T Guardian visited their home. She blamed the police for their deaths, however, saying villagers had made several reports about the pitbulls’ attacks to the Matura Police Station but nothing was done.
She said the neighbour had constantly threatened to shoot her relatives when they made reports to the station, adding the man was well known to police but they refrained from taking action against him. She said Lloyd and Ryan were fishermen and part-time farmers who were family men and never troubled anyone.
“Some people feel they are above the law because they have money and this is how the poor are taken advantage of. This shooting is one good example and police must learn from this and act on reports of threats,” she said.
Relatives Christine Mahabir and Vasthi Maharaj were stunned at the attack in broad daylight.
“We could not believe the news and only realised that they were both dead when we saw their bodies being taken to the mortuary. Only last night we were having fun with Ryan. Life is strange,” they said.
Relatives were also upset that they were not allowed to see Lloyd’s wife, Tara, when they went to the Matura Police Station to comfort her.
“This was inhumane. A woman in distress, frantic and traumatised in the police station. This is unwarranted,” Tara’s brother Harry Sookoo said.
They said when they told the police she needed medical attention, a female officer said that was their (police’s) responsibility.
Sookoo said he also accompanied police and soldiers during the search for the killer and was disappointed by their actions.
“They make a half search and return with some soldiers sitting in a shed. They received news that the killer was seen on the beach and the response by the officers was disgusting; they drove on the beach and never alighted or go into the bushes and make a search for the killer,” he said.
The Ramkissoons called for swift justice, adding they hoped there would be no cover-up in the matter. At the same time, they said they remained fearful for their lives as the gunman could return and attack them.
Contacted last evening on the family’s complaint, ACP Persad said he had asked senior officers attached to the Eastern Division to supply him with the police station reports. But he said when the senior officers requested the information, they were told there were no written reports of any such incidents recorded in the station diary.
On Sookoo’s claim that the joint search party failed to come out of their vehicles when they visited the beach where the suspect was seen, Persad said he was leading the search.
He said they drove along the shores of Salybia looking for the killer, but eventually abandoned it after realising they had received false information.
“We did all in our power to find the killer, responding in the quickest possible time,” Persad said.