Councillor calls for ‘state of emergency’ after relative’s murder

PEOPLE’s National Movement councillor for the St Ann’s River/St Clair electoral district Peter John has called for an immediate “state of emergency” in Laventille, and for the police to make a house to house search to get rid of all the guns. This view was expressed in light of his brother-in-law ‘PH’ taxi driver Junior Fleming alias`Porky’ who was gunned down Monday night a few yards from the councillor’s home in Laventille. “The only way to stop the killing in Laventille is to get rid of all the guns, and the only way this can happen is by a “state of emergency.” “My brother-in-law was a good man and should not have died so. “These killings must be stopped,” insisted John.

A similar suggestion was made several months ago by several citizens, but was shut down by national security agencies. When asked as a councillor whether he made a similar proposal to the party’s hierarchy on the subject, he was non-committal. Fleming, 44, became this country’s 146th murder victim for the year. For the same period last year 133 murders were registered throughout the island. According to reports, around 10 pm the father of six returned home from working his car along the Port-of-Spain Laventille road, took off his trousers, put them on a chair and walked to the porch in his briefs to wash his face and take some  “breeze” as he normally did. A short while later, his common-law wife Colleen Charles, 18, who was in the kitchen heard two loud explosions, a scream and then a thud. She remained hidden for a while.

Eventually Charles ventured outside and found Fleming’s body in a pool of blood. The police were contacted and later the District Medical Officer ordered the body removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Autopsy results confirm Fleming died from haemorrhaging consistent with bullet wounds to his head and shoulder. The deportee was the 50th murder victim in Laventille for the year. “People are afraid to talk, they see and they say they did not see, because the police cannot protect them and they will be killed,” continued the councillor. “There are too many guns in the hands of the criminals and we must get rid of them.” When Newsday visited his Desperlie Crescent home in Laventille, no one was present and residents refused to speak. Cpl Fonellia is investigating Fleming’s murder.