A kiss before dying

“He just gave me a kiss and then left. Little did I know, that would be the last time I saw my son alive,” cried the mother of three.

“An hour later, I got a call that he was dead and my other son is in the hospital,” Terri-Ann Goodridge said. Wiping away tears, the woman added that her sons Omari and Tekima, went to her home on George Street in Port-of- Spain on Thursday, to spend the day with her. Just before 8 pm, she said, her two sons left to go to their respective homes. A short while later, she received news no parent ever wants to hear. Son Omari was dead.

According to reports Omari, 25, and Tekima, 24, were liming with a group of friends under a shed near their home in Dan Kelly, Laventille. At about 9.30 pm gunshots rang out. When the smoke cleared, the two Goodridge brothers and a 16-year-old girl identified by police as Deyshaun Campbell, were all lying on the ground, shot several times.

All three were rushed to the Port-of-Spain General hospital but Omari succumbed to his wounds while en route. Newsday understands that Omari was shot multiple times in the chest while Tekima was shot in both legs.

Tekima, a father of one, remains warded at hospital in a stable condition. The murder toll has reached over 430 for this year. No motive has been established and investigations are continuing.