MY THREE SONS MURDERED

Rapid gunfire was heard along Trou Macaque Road, Laventille and at 7.15 pm on Thursday, the brothers’ bullet-riddled bodies, were found on the road. The double-murder came days after Stephon Morris was gunned down in another area of Laventille.

“I am reliving the nightmare of three years ago. My three sons have been snatched from me by gunmen. I am not going to pretend like other parents and say my sons were good boys. They were miserable...they found themselves in the wrong crowd and no matter how much I talked to them, pleaded with them, they never listened to me.

“But to be cut down by so many bullets. It is a hard, hard thing for a mother to bear when her three sons have been taken by the bullets of criminals. No mother should ever have to go through this,” Mack-Williams cried. Speaking outside the Forensic Science Centre St James, while autopsies were being done on her sons’ bodies, Mack-Williams stood and cried as she whispered her sons’ names.

On February 1, 2009, Marcus Mack, 21, was shot dead at the corner of Eastern Main Road and Railway Road, St Joseph, shortly after he left the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) Carnival fete. Shortly before being shot, Mack had gotten into an argument with another man after he (Mack) wined on the man’s girlfriend at the fete.

“Over the past three years, it has been one tragedy after another. First Marcus was killed, then my husband died of a heart attack two years ago. Now my two other sons have been gunned down. Right now, I am praying for strength as I now have to bury my two boys. Three of my sons have been lost to crime and I can only hope and pray that my other four children, can be spared such a violent end,” she said. Mack-Williams revealed that her youngest child is 11, and she wants her four remaining children to live to “a ripe old age”.

“Both of my sons were home sleeping when they heard voices telling them to come outside and lime. Marvin’s girlfriend told him not to go outside but he said he would only go out for a short while. Next thing you know, I am getting a telephone call that my sons lying on the road dead,” Mack-Williams said.

“I don’t know what happened and I don’t know why this happened to my sons. I don’t know if this was a case of jealousy or what. I just don’t know. And how come the gunmen just disappeared so? I thought the police and soldiers were all over the place in Laventille,” Mack-Williams said.

Visiting the scene Thursday night were officers led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Donald Denoon, Assistant Superintendent Ajith Persad, Sgt Montrichard, Sgt Springer and Cpl Degale. About 15 spent shells were recovered at the murder scene. Sources said the spent shells were from nine-millimetre and .40 calibre pistols. No arrest has been made.

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams told Newsday last night that while the murders of the brothers were tragic and the police were doing all that they could to capture the killers, the killings does not mean that the Laventille joint police/army initiative is failing.

“It is unfortunate and every murder is significant as it represents a life lost by unnatural and violent means. But these recent killings do not mean the Laventille initiatives are failing. The police will not be responding in a reactive mode. “There is a clear plan of action to improve life in Laventille and so far it can be said that it is working. There was a significant period of time where there were no murders in Laventille and over the past four days, there were two days in which there were zero murders in the country.

“We realise the clear gains to the plan of our actions in Laventille, and its failings along with the fact that despite our best intentions the protective services cannot be everywhere at once. But I will say this, no murder has been committed in the presence of the police or defence force personnel while on patrol,” Williams said.

Meanwhile, investigations are continuing into the murder on Tuesday morning of Stephon Morris, nephew of former TT “strike squad” football team skipper Clayton Morris. No arrest has been made and Morris’ mother was expected to return home last night, from the United States where she now lives, to plan his funeral. The murder now stands at 321.