Tuesday’s shooting sparks city outrage

"What this place coming to boy, can you imagine that somebody so innocent had to endure an ordeal like that. I give up on the police, yes," a fruit vendor commented. She preferred to remain anonymous for fear of being victimised.

Another fruit vendor, Mocaish Mahabir, said he travels from Wallerfield every day to sell his produce on Charlotte Street. He has been working in the city for the past 15 years. His fruit stall is located almost opposite the shooting site.

"I am still in shock over this incident," he told Newsday yesterday,

"I find that those people should at least have some consideration, and not play their games in the midst of innocent people," he added.

"Right now crime is way out of hand and everybody from young to old is merging into it," Mahabir said.

He says that although he no longer feels safe working in the city, he does not intend to leave.

"As small as I am as a businessman, when all this crime goes on in the city, I lose customers," he stated.

"I don’t consider leaving. We have to be brave in this life — if we don’t, who will pay the bills for us?"

Salima Mohammed, a supervisor at IAM and Company, described Tuesday’s shooting as scary. Mohammed has been working in the city for the past 25 years.

"It has been safe for all those years. It is only now that all this crime is going on," she told Newsday.

She said she has no intention of leaving as she believes that crime is just as bad or even worse in other countries.

Meanwhile, 22-year-old Jelli Vidale has only been working in Port-of-Spain for a few days, but expressed fear at the number of criminal acts in the city.

"I am afraid, imagine that I have to be constantly looking over my back when I am walking the streets," she said. "I know that there is crime all over the world, but we have to deal with our problem here in TT because this is where we live," she added.