2003 saw the death of innocence

The year was blighted before it began with the tragic shooting of a child.

Three-year-old Reba Aaliyah Aberdeen at the start of the year was watching New Year’s fireworks from the porch of her home in Coconut Drive, Morvant, when she was shot in the head by a stray bullet illegally fired in celebration. Days later, Reba died. Her death was a bad omen for the whole year which saw a record 227 killings, including other innocent infants caught in the crossfire. But as frightening as it was for innocents to be caught by stray bullets, the reality of most shootings was perhaps no less terrifying — organised groups of men were deliberately and systematically shooting and killing individuals. The pattern was the same. The victim, sometimes a suspect in a recent crime, was shot by a gang of gunmen who would appear out of a hillside track or alight from a car. These were  targetted, reprisal assassinations, colloquially misnomered “executions”. Other victims were abducted, then found dead with their hands tied behind their back and shot in the head.

The country continued to descend into a frenzy of tit-for-tat killings spawned by gang wars, themselves fuelled by the illicit drug trade and rivalry for social aid like URP and NHA works. Young poor black males, who had gone to school together, bathed the Laventille/Morvant hills with each other’s blood. And the killings weren’t confined to Morvant/Laventille. The killings spilt out into other areas. By year-end victims included residents of upscale Petit Valley and Westmoorings. On August 13 the mansion of executed drug-runner, the late Dole Chadee, burnt down. But that wasn’t the end of his “empire”. Reports are that his “heirs” had in 2003 been collecting outstanding debts owed to Chadee’s “estate”, through a campaign of kidnapping the relatives of debtors. Prayer-vigils, marches and consultations were held, all urging action, but the politicians largely continued to use crime to score cheap political points.

Officials blamed the upsurge in killings and kidnappings on the drug trade, but then Attorney General Glenda Morean showed the size of the problem by revealing that the amount of money illicitly laundered through Trinidad and Tobago annually was $30 billion — about 40 percent more than our 2003 National Budget! Everyone had some suggestion to make as to how to eradicate crime, but there was much finger-pointing at each other, with no clear consensus as to the causes of crime or its solutions. Minister of Trade, Ken Valley, and United States Ambassador, Dr Roy Austin, argued over whether the crime upsurge was caused by an increase in US deportees, which Minister of Social Development, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid numbered at some 236 per year. San Juan Business Association president, Gail Merhair, disclosed that 80 percent of her group’s members had sent their children abroad for fears of kidnapping. But Prime Minister Patrick Manning told nationals at Howard University, Washington DC, that some kidnappings were not genuine.

The Opposition criticised Manning for attributing the flood of illegal guns on political instability in Venezuela, for meeting criminals he had dubbed “community leaders” at Cascadia Hotel, and for saying the average citizen had little to fear from gang crime. Junior Minster of Trade, Diane Seukeran, spoke for many when in her Budget contribution she admitted “I am afraid,” and declared that the country was at war as she urged the Opposition to support Government anti-crime initiatives. Speaking at a seminar with former New York Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, Clico head Claudius Dacon, declared: “The crime wave has changed our country and has changed us.” Indeed year-end saw some churches cancel their traditional Old Year’s midnight mass because of fear of crime. Government policy to tackle crime was a mixture of success and failure. Under then Minister of National Security Howard Chin Lee, and then Commissioner of Police Hilton Guy, the country enjoyed a relatively peaceful Carnival. New Minister of National Security Martin Joseph, and acting CoP Everard Snaggs kept the streets of Port-of-Spain safe for Christmas with beefed up joint police/army patrols.

The Crime-Stoppers boasted its hotline had taken over 4,000 tip-off calls from 1999 to 2003. The Committee Against Crime ran a campaign tittled “Take ME out of CRIME” saying offences like littering, swearing and bad-driving had made us into a lawless society. Critics said the campaign was trying to lay blame elsewhere. RC priest Fr Clyde Harvey, speaking in July at the funeral for slain photographic shop owner Gerald Punch (34), urged: “Stop making excuses for crime.” In the Budget, Manning announced the formation of a new Special Crime Fighting Unit headed by Brigadier Peter Joseph, but the Opposition said this body might be a “Mongoose Gang”. Other measures he announced were more police patrols, acquisition of two new patrol boats and a hi-tech radar system both to stop drug-running, and stricter laws for offences of illegal arms and kidnapping. In his Budget statement Manning declared: “The population is being terrorised as the criminals have declared virtual war on this society...We now declare war on the criminals...” The Government said it was recruiting more Special Reserve Police, and by late December some 376 new officers had passed out.

On November 20 the UK-based Privy Council ended this country’s mandatory death penalty for murder, but exactly a month later newly-appointed Attorney General John Jeremie vowed to take on the Law Lords. Eyebrows were raised when then Minister of Legal Affairs Camille Robinson-Regis, said in her Budget speech that all citizens were to be fingerprinted and given an identifying number, this information to form part of their records in the Ministry of National Security. A warmer welcome was given to the installation of security cameras on Charlotte Street by the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA), a measure Manning said he would like to see the group extend. On December 20,  just back from visiting US President George W Bush at the White House, Manning said he was taking steps to eradicate the local drug trade to address US concerns over terrorism.

The year 2003 saw 227 murders and 49 kidnappings, up from 172 and 29 respectively in 2002.  The most prominent murders were those related to gang-warfare, including the Jamaat al Muslimeen, the involvement of children as both victims and killers, and the deaths of kidnap victims. On June 4 casino supervisor Jillia Bowen (31), and expelled Jamaat member Lincoln Alexis aka Salim Rasheed were shot dead at Movie Towne, Invaders Bay, while Bowen’s common-law husband, Clive Lewis aka Adil Ghani (36) was wounded. On August 22 Jamaat leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, appeared in court charged with conspiracy to murder, and was granted $250,000 bail. The case continues. On November 20 Phillip Seerattan (17), who had been denied enrolment to the International School at Westmoorings, stole his father’s 9mm pistol, entered the school, shot a guard and took a 15-year old hostage. Seerattan was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the police. An inquest into his death continues. On August 10, the inquest began into the mysterious death of Akiel Chambers (11), some five years prior on May 24 1998 in the swimming pool of the Maraval home of businessman and race-horse owner Charles James. The inquest united the public not just in grief, but in outrage at the twists and turns in the receiving of evidence.

Many killings were gang-related. These included the March 14 killing of Neil “Big Neil” Lewis (50) of La Pump Extension, Trou Macaque, in what police dubbed a “hit” in a drug war. On March 23 high-ranking Jamaat member Mark Guerra was abducted and taken to Wallerfield and killed. On April 2 Delene Long (50) was killed at home in Gonzales at a birthday party. She was the mother of a child of Neil “Big Neil” Lewis and police suspect her killing was related to those of Lewis and Mark Guerra. On May 2 gunmen shot at a Mercedes-Benz in an assassination attempt on Jamaat-linked Lincoln Alexis aka Samil Rasheed and Ken “Kazim” Gonzales and four year old Jayideah Gonzales. Many children were victims of shootings. On April 18 Jammal Jerome (16) was shot dead and his sister Sherifa Jerome (13) was shot in her stomach in Gonzales, in what police said was a case of mistaken identity, by four men with pistols and shotgun who broke into the house shouting “Police! Police!”

On May 5 eighteen-month old baby Shanice Callender was shot and injured, along with her mother Arlene Callender (36) and Garvin Jones (24) when attacked at their home at Beverly Hills by five men. On June 15 a man trying to elude assassination used a woman, Crystal Best (20), and her two-year-old son, Rondell, as human shields. Mark Granger was shot dead, a stone’s throw from St Barb’s Police Station. Mother and child miraculously survived. On July 16 Joanna Walker (13) of Mentor Alley, Laventille, was accidentally shot dead when she stepped outside for fresh air by a man gunning for a Muslim man. That same day Simone Pierre (14) was stabbed to death by a relative. The year saw two early-teen boys killed over women; two cases of early-teen girls killers, and two fathers gruesomely murdering their infant sons. Some kidnappings ended with the release or escape of the victims. Shamshoon Mohammed (33) was abducted from an aerobics class at the Caroni Community Center. In protest villagers blocked the road and burnt down the old local post office. She escaped.

On September 15 Tricia Suryadevera (26) of Princes Town was kidnapped, one year after a similar attempt on her businessman father had failed. One young “kidnap victim” was found to have set up his own abduction to extort money from his father, and officials cast doubt on the veracity of several others. Tragically, some kidnappings ended in death. On July 23 Damien Schneider (35) was found dead. On September 8 kidnapped Point Lisas businessman Vernon Roopnarine (50) was found beaten to death in Petit Valley. On August 22 the body was found of the main State witness in a kidnapping case against Selwyn “Robocop” Alexis, Brian Cole, Kevin Simpson and Rooplal Harrichan. Due to testify in the kidnapping of South businessman Saran Kissoondan,  Kevin Richards was found dead in a bag containing pieces of concrete, floating in a pond in Longdenville, his hands bound with yellow cord. The case was discontinued for lack of evidence.

Crime also affected the upper-class residences. On October 9 Tessa Stollmeyer (47) of Westmoorings, fought off two armed kidnappers in front of her small daughter. On December 2 Christopher Aleong, head of Mac Foods and brother of former BWIA CEO Conrad Aleong, was shot dead in a hail of bullets at his Petit Valley home. Days before on November 30 retired Scotiabank employee and social worker, Annette Farah, was shot dead in company at her Westmoorings house by a jewel thief. On August 26 cocaine washed up on shore at Manzanilla. Soon bodies too started washing up. Villlagers scrambled for cocaine. Men claiming to be police descended on villages seeking the drugs.

In 2004 we will see whether the Government can stop these gruesome killings and kidnappings by eradicating the drug-trade.