Slain hunter’s wife cries for revenge

SHAKING and holding back the tears, Crystal Rodriguez has put all suggestions of forgiveness behind her and wants the head of the police officer who fatally shot her common-law husband Christopher Khanhai aka “Spray” on Wednesday night. “I want to see the policeman suffer for the rest of his life. When he goes home, he has a family and children, my children and I have none because he killed my husband,” an unforgiving Rodriguez, 19, told Newsday. “He cannot replace my husband. “Our lives are now empty without him, while this officer who shot an innocent man goes about his life quite happy.” According to police reports, at around 6.30 pm yesterday, members of the Northern Division Task Force  were on an exercise in the Lalaha Forest, Paria on the Blanchisseuse Road when they saw five men armed with shotguns.

The police called on them to drop their weapons. Four of the men complied, but one refused and raised his weapon. Taking no chances, a shot was fired and Khanhai, 32, a father of six, was hit in the chest. Police rushed the man out of the forest but he died on arrival at the Arima District hospital. The permits for the weapons were checked and handed back to their owners. “My husband will never do that. As far as I am aware, he was never given a chance, now my world is smashed. Who will take care of my children and me or carry out his dream to care and provide a better home for his family?” asked the depressed woman. “When I heard he was killed, I did not believe it. I stood up by the door at my workplace waiting where he met me every night and even when he did not come, I did not believe he was dead. “But when I got up this morning and he was not in the bed, then I knew he was dead. We were poor but happy. Now my children and I are lonely, he can’t come back.” “Even though he was unemployed, he made everyone happy and even went as far as to form the BITS United Under-13 football team currently campaigning in the Eddie Hart Football League to keep the village children out of trouble.”

“Spray,” who was also an All Fours enthusiast, lived in a one-room board house with no lights or water. Recalling the evening and what she heard, “Spray’s” common-law wife, a 19-year-old mother of three, told Newsday, “earlier that evening ‘Spray’ left for his wood-working class, while I went to work at Royal Castle, Arima. “I learnt, while returning from class, he met his friends going to hunt and being an avid hunter for a source of income, he went with them. “Next, this officer comes from nowhere and shoot him without warning. “Now they are trying to cover it up by lying and saying ‘Spray’ refused to drop his gun. “But I know that is a lie and I want the officer to pay for what he did,” ended the dazed woman. Jemma Villafana, aunt of the dead man, supported Rodriguez and called for justice for the death of her nephew claiming it was “unadulterated murder.” When Newsday spoke to former PNM councillor Melon Garcia, who was part of the party of five and who appeared to be in a state of bewilderment, he denied the police statement.

“I understand that police will have to cover up, but what they are saying is a lie.” “We were all there discussing which path we should take when we heard a shot and then a shout of “police!” “Thinking the shot was made in the air, I turned around and asked, ‘Boy is this the way you people does do things?’ which is when I saw ‘Spray’ dead on the ground. “He did nothing to deserve it. That is an innocent life lost. He was like a son to me. At present I can’t even think,” ended the well-known paranderos. When contacted, police sources told Newsday they had been ordered not to give out any information. Senior officers claimed it is being investigated and they did not have much. Newsday learnt, however, that the policeman who fired the shot is a young officer who recently entered the Task Force. The now single mother is calling on the public to assist her however they can. ASP Wesley Moore is investigating.