Singing Sandra for residents...

Former Calypso Monarch Sandra des Vignes, better known as Singing Sandra, has publicly disassociated the men in her apartment building at Hirondelle Road, Morvant, from the current crime wave in the area.

Holding her chest and looking up to heaven, the building’s most famous resident cried yesterday, “My boys are good boys. They would not do something like this. My one fear is now that this has happened here, fingers will be pointed at my boys, but they are all good.” The singer, who identified several young men standing before her by name as her spiritual children, was in an emotional state after the murder of an unidentified man near Building 2 at the Hirondelle Plannings. According to reports, the Police Command Centre received a report of gunfire in the area. On investigation, Morvant police found the body of a stockily built African man in his late 20s, about five feet seven inches tall, wearing a black three-quarter pants and a cream and brown jersey.

He had a knapsack with barbering equipment and a bible opened on Psalm 23. The body bore three bullet wounds to the head. According to des Vignes, “I left the building 25 minutes before and had just entered the ‘Cove’ with some friends when I got the message that someone was killed. Having lost two of my sons — Diahallo Paul in February and Patrick Smith last week — I hurried back to the scene hoping it was not another one of my children.

“Thank God it was not. I came here at the age of six and left here at 49,” she said.

“Although I now live in Tobago, I visit here regularly and feel for my children,” ended the bard.

Singing Sandra is well-known for her song “Voices from the ghetto” where she called on residents of Laventille, Morvant and other crime-prone areas to put down their guns. She has in other songs called for an end to the gang warfare and for more to be put in place to assist the youths of the community. The body was viewed by the DMO and taken to the Forensic Sciences Centre for an autopsy today. The murder toll now stands at 111.

Eighty-seven people had been murdered at this time last year.

Visiting the scene were Supt Trim, ASP Moore, Insps Hilaire and Hazarre, Sgt Ramdeen and Cpl Lawrence of the Homicide Bureau.