Three shot and killed at Desperlie Crescent

Police said the bullet-riddled bodies of Michael Jameel Fox, alias “Blacker,” 24, his cousin Michael Fox, 21, and another man, Shaquille Bishop, were discovered at an unfinished concrete house in which Jameel lived, off Desperlie Crescent, during the early hours of yesterday morning.

Police reportedly had to knock down a door to get to the men. When Sunday Newsday visited the scene yesterday, police had cordoned off a portion of the compound surrounding Jameel’s home with yellow caution tape as crime scene investigators combed the area for evidence.

Metres away, Jameel’s distraught relatives, neighbours and friends gathered along a walkway leading to the house as they tried to come to terms with his shocking demise.

The young man’s mother, Susan Roberts-Fox, was inconsolable.

“All yuh don’t know how I feeling nah,” a teary-eyed Roberts-Fox said as she clung to a neighbour. Roberts-Fox said her son was a Cepep worker, who was also employed occasionally at the Port-of-Spain City Corporation.

A female relative, who did not want to be named, described Jameel as a good-natured young man.

“He was always jolly and smiling but you never know what people could be involved in,” she said.

Another female relative lamented that too many young men were dying in the crime-plagued community. She also chided the police about the low criminal detection rate.

“With all the thing they (crime scene investigators) looking for, nothing would not come out of this. Peter have to pay for all. Remember, this is not the President or the Prime Minister’s son. This is just another black brother gone,” she said.

The group claimed they did not hear any gunshots ring out early yesterday.

“This is a mystery. Everybody does lime late and nobody eh hear anything,” one woman said.

Head of the Port-of-Spain CID, Senior Superintendent Wayne Boyd, Insp Gibbs and others visited the scene. ASP Ajith Persad and others of the Besson Street Police Station are investigating. During the ceremonial opening of Parliament on Friday, President Carmona called on parliamentarians to work together in finding a holistic solution to crime.

“Crime continues to be the scourge of our society...If ever there was a need to cooperate an engage in realistic bipartisan methods, the time is now,” he said.

“For far too long, we have addressed the issue of crime with a focus on containment and not from a more holistic perspective.”

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in a statement after the President’s address, announced plans to have the Anti-Gang Act enforced so as to address the resurgence in gang warfare as well as increasing levels of lawlessness in the country.

She said Attorney General Anand Ramlogan will also find novel solutions to deal with crime during the new parliamentary term.