Uncle shot dead, wounded mom shields baby

TWO-month-old baby girl, Timika Stoute, is a Laventille survivor. She escaped unhurt when gunmen early yesterday morning attacked a house in Laventille killing her uncle and seriously wounding her mother.

Timika owes her second life to the woman who had given birth to her only two months ago. When the gunmen started shooting, Onika Stoute, 20, although wounded in her stomach, behind her ear and on her hand, threw herself over the baby, who was lying on the bed. It was an action that saved the child. Not so lucky was Onika’s brother, Him Demanie Rudolph Stoute, 18, who was fatally shot. Onika was reported to be stable at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. The brother and sister, along with baby Timika, were all asleep in one room of an unfinished house at Upper Pashley Street around 12.30 am yesterday, when the gunmen stormed the house, which had also been partially burnt in a fire. Senior police officers told Newsday that Him Demanie Stoute was one of two men who shot and killed Sean Clarke, 22, at Minchie Alley, Quarry Street on May 11. They said Stoute was one of the men responsible for beating up a man that eventually led to last Thursday’s shooting death of maxi taxi tout Dion Manson, 28, of Charford Courts.  According to police information, Stoute was also linked to a Laventille gang  run by a notorious person, whose name has been called in several murders.

Police said the gunmen approached the Laventille house firing shots. Three of the bullets shattered three windows and struck Onika in the stomach, behind the ear and on her hand. The gunmen then kicked down a wooden door and opened fire on Stoute who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the same room. He was reportedly shot nine times. When the gunmen fled the scene, Onika, bleeding, ran outside seeking assistance, and met resident Rennel Gunn. Gunn said yesterday that Onika was holding her stomach and told him that her brother was in the house.  He said she asked for them to be taken to the hospital. “I asked her where was the baby. She told me the baby on the bed,” Gunn said. He said he then contacted the police after which a party of officers headed by Insp Manechand Ramnarine and including Cpls Reuben Alleyne, Francis Collins and Sookdeo and several others visited the scene.

Police took the brother and sister to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, while baby Timika was taken to relatives at a Port-of-Spain apartment. Stoute was pronounced dead on arrival. Jeffrey Samuel, the baby’s father, said yesterday that when he spoke to Onika in hospital she told him that baby Timika began to cry on hearing the gunshots and that she covered her child with her body. “Thank God my child is safe,” Samuel, 25, said. He also said that he too could have been killed, since he might have stayed in the Laventille home Monday night. “It’s a good thing I didn’t,” he said. Samuel added that Demanie Stoute was a URP worker. He added that Stoute lived at Dillon Street, Diego Martin, but moved into Laventille last September after his father, Russel “Tops” Hernandez told him to. Samuel blamed Stoute’s killing on what he describes as a “borderline war” between people from Pashley Street and others from Morvant. Residents of the area appealed for a police post at Mahabir Lands. They said Mahabir Lands separates Pashley Street and Morvant, an area also referred to as Africa.  The residents said a group of people have already put forward a request for the police post to National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee. No arrests had been made up to late evening and Cpl Sookdeo of Besson Street CID is continuing investigations.