The system failed us

This was what relatives of 19-year-old Anfernie Hamilton claimed yesterday days after the aspiring welder was shot dead on the weekend during an altercation near a bar on Cipero Street in San Fernando.

An autopsy yesterday confirmed cause of death was due to multiple gunshot wounds. Relatives expressed disappointment not only in the performance of the police but of medical staff who treated him.

“He was only shot in his legs.

How is it he died? He was not shot in the head or heart...he was shot in his legs,” cried a relative. “It is a big disappointment. All of it, from the first response of the police to the lack of care by hospital officials,” the relative added.

It was reported that at about 5.20 am on Saturday, Hamilton and his brother Nathaniel Roberts got into an altercation with a man. Roberts yesterday said that he saw police officers approaching in a marked vehicle but instead of helping to break up the fracas, officers parked their marked vehicle a short distance.

Roberts said he was armed only with a cup which he threw at the man who was fighting his brother. That man later drew a firearm and shot Hamilton.

It was then, Roberts said, that the police intervened yet still the gunman managed to escape. Hamilton was placed in the police vehicle and taken to the San Fernando General Hospital. Relatives said that at 9 pm, Hamilton died at the medical institution.

Hamilton was the youngest of three siblings, Roberts said. “It is really hard because they killed my baby brother. He did not deserve to die like that,” Roberts cried.

“He wanted to make something of himself. I always told him that he had to keep his head on and make money.” The murder toll for the year now stands at 21.

Meanwhile, an autopsy done yesterday on the body of mother of two Balmatee Bachan confirmed that she died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. The CEPEP worker died on Sunday morning at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope after she was shot by a gunman while she and her husband Mahase Lutchman were returning to their El Socorro home at 2.15 am.