PH taxi driver shot dead

Ossie Callender of Battoo Avenue, Marabella was shot once to the back of his head while inside his car .

Police report that at about 11 pm, officers responded to a report of a gunshot at Alexander Street, Vistabella. When they got to the location officers found Callender’s body slumped in the driver’s seat of his blue Nissan Primera car. Police cordoned off the area as a crime scene and a district medical officer gave instructions for the young man’s body to be taken to the San Fernando Mortuary .

Callender lived with his common- law wife Sarah Baptiste and their two children, Elizabeth, four, and one-year-old Elijah .

Sunday Newsday learnt Baptiste and the children had travelled to Tobago to visit relatives for a few days and were expected to return home in the next few days .

Callender’s cousin Nicole Leonard was stunned by the devastating news, saying Callendar was making a living operating his car as a PH taxi to provide for his family. Callendar worked along the Marabella/San Fernando and Couva/San Fernando routes, she said .

“I was not there, so I can’t say what happened exactly, but from what the police told us my cousin was robbed,” said Leonard, 39, who lives at Mac Naughton-Jones Street, Plaisance Park, Pointe-a- Pierre. The mother of six said she did not know of any threats made against her cousin .

“They killed a man with two young children. Crime in this country is really appalling now .

When you see all these killings on television and now it comes on your doorsteps, it is really sad,” Leonard said. People need to stop blaming governments for crime, and find ways, instead, of getting young people to avoid committing crimes .

“It is not the government that is at fault, parents need to sit and talk to their children. The youths are using firearms and weapons to commit these crimes. We need to talk to the youths, we need to talk to them,” she urged. “Crime is getting too ridiculous, just now taxi drivers would be also afraid to work and many people would not be able to reach to their homes.” A month ago, Kurt Levero, 43, also a PH taxi driver, was stabbed to death while operating his Nissan Almera in Marabella. Levero lived at Calcutta No 3 Extension, Couva. Homicide Bureau region III are continuing investigations .