3 murders shatter families in Tobago, Diego, Tunapuna

At about 1.10 am yesterday in Diego Martin, 26-year-old Jahkim Valentine was liming in his yard on Ponderosa Drive with a group of friends when an unknown gunman entered the yard from the garage and fired several shots at them.

On hearing the loud explosions, a relative of Valentine’s ran outside to see the construction worker and father lying on the ground motionless with several gunshot wounds about the body.

Rondell Matthew, 15, of Mahogany Trace in Diego Martin, also part of the group of limers, was shot in his leg. He was taken to the Port-of- Spain General Hospital where he remains warded.

And a 28-year-old Tunapuna man who police said had a long rap sheet for larceny of vehicles and robberies was shot dead while standing outside his father’s home at the corner of St Vincent Street, Tunapuna, shortly after 4.30 pm yesterday. According to reports, Brad Williams was last seen alive standing in front of a vehicle when a silver AD wagon pulled up and several loud explosions were heard.

When relatives checked, they discovered Williams’ bullet-riddled body lying on the ground. A party of officers, led by Snr Supt Rajkumar and including Homicide and CSI officers went to the scene and the area was cordoned off.

In the case of Tobago, Zaki Lorde’s killing was the second murder to be recorded in the island for the year – both in the Lambeau area. In July, Tobago recorded its first murder in the same village, when Zaquius Daniel was fatally stabbed. One man from Toco in Trinidad has since been charged with that incident.

Lorde was shot in the head by two men while he was sitting outside the Livewire Bar around 10.20 on Friday night. The bar is just 30 metres from his home.

Passers-by at first thought the explosions to be the noise of firecrackers, but when Lorde slumped to the ground, they immediately realized it was gunshots. The two men then walked back into the direction from which they came after shooting Lord and left the scene in a white Tiida. Lorde, a father of four, worked as a sanitation worker with the Division of Infrastructure and Public Utilities.

Words were not enough to comfort Lorde’s parents, Hubert Lord and Claudia Phillips, who were visibly trying to come to terms with the news of their son’s killing.

They were well supported by family members, friends and well-wishers.

Speaking with Sunday Newsday, his mother, Claudia Phillips said she remains in shock over her son’s murder. “He was my only child,” she moaned yesterday. “Zaki was very loving and this is something that, I don’t know I cannot explain this loss. it’s unexplainable. I still cannot believe that when I walk up the road, it was my son that I saw lying there. To me, it was like I was in a dream and I would wake up soon.” “It’s hard, right now,” she said. “I am hurt, so forgiveness is nowhere in my vocabulary. Maybe along the road whenever I come to accept his death probably, I may be in a position to forgive, but at this time, I don’t know about forgiveness. I just want the perpetrators, whoever did this to my son.... I want justice.” Lorde’s father, Hubert said he has come to the realization that in life, anything is possible.

“The times in which we live, we have to realize that we have to expect anything at any time, especially based upon lifestyle and practices,” the distraught father said. “You read about it, you see it in the news but now it has come home to me and as a result, I have to cope with it.” Assistant Commissioner of Police Tobago Garfield Moore confirmed that no one has been held in connection with the incident and a motive is yet to be established.