PNM activist shot dead

MINUTES after visiting the mother of former Deputy Chief Magistrate Deborah Felix-Thomas, a man described as a People’s National Movement (PNM) activist was murdered in Mayaro on Thursday.

Peter Marine, 47, president of the Mayaro/Guayaguayare Unemployment Organisations and Concerned Citizens, was shot to death at about 8 pm as he left the home of Felix-Thomas’ mother —Bernadette Felix — at Plaisance Village.

A police report stated Marine, a father of one, had just visited the senior magistrate’s mother and was walking through a pathway leading to the Plaisance Main Road, when a man walked up to him and shot Marine five times about the head and chest. Death was instant. At the time, magistrate Felix Thomas was also visiting her mother. When the gunshots rang out, Thomas’ two bodyguards quickly escorted her to a vehicle which sped off.

When Newsday visited Bristol Village, Mafeking, where Marine lived, residents expressed mixed views over the activist’s killing. The residents said that several attempts were made on Marine’s life within recent times.

“Marine almost lost his life when he was chopped two years ago. Last year, he was shot several times but this time he could not escape,” a resident told Newsday. At Marine’s Bristol Village home relatives called on police to act quickly and bring the perpetrators to justice. His nephew Jason Marine, 26, who described the killing as an act of “jealousy” said the last time he saw his uncle alive was about an hour before the killing, when he and Marine’s daughter Kema, 13, left to go to a video club.

Jason told Newsday that moments after arriving home he received a telephone call informing him of what had happened. “I rushed over to where he was, but by the time I arrived he was not moving. Blood was flowing heavily from his body, so I knew he was already dead,” Jason said. Matthew Pierre, a PNM councillor in the Rio Claro/Regional Mayaro Corporation, expressed sadness over Marine’s killing. Pierre who had a conversation with Marine hours before he was killed said that when he learnt of the murder, he immediately closed his Pub — Illusion Bar and rushed over to the scene. “It is very hard for me to accept what has happened,” Pierre said.

Investigations are continuing by the Homicide Bureau and up to late yesterday no arrests had been made.