Ex-Death Row inmate gunned down

THERE were mixed reactions yesterday, some crying, some quietly cheering, as community leader Rennie Paul lay dead, at the tail of his car, a victim of another shooting in his hometown at Pashley Street, Laventille. At around 10 am yesterday, Paul, 37, a former Death Row inmate, was driving north along Pashley Street, Laventille, with a State witness in the passenger seat when another man called out to him to stop. Paul stopped and the two began speaking and then arguing, after which they had a small scuffle, causing the passenger to pull the former murder accused away, encouraging him to drive off. However, before he could drive off, his assailant fired five shots into the front car windshield, hitting Paul in the hand and chest.

The injured man got out of the car and attempted to run but stumbled at the tail of the car where the assailant fired several more shots, hitting him in the head, groin and other parts of the body. Paul died instantly and his assailant and passenger ran off in different directions. While some openly wept for the slain Unemployment Relief Programme supervisor, giving public commendation of his character, others quietly spoke of the humiliation and suffering he caused many people, both in his employment role and his gangland operations. “Many people will cry now because since he has come out of jail, a lot who never drank milk have milk to drink, many who never had a shoe on their foot or money in their pockets until he came out will feel the pain,” one weeping woman told Newsday. “He was a good man who helped many,” added another man. While another resident quietly whispered to us,” that man hurt many and up to his death was still calling shots under the guise of being a community worker.

When Newsday visited the area yesterday, residents refused to talk but Laventille Council Elder member Lennox Smith lamented his demise. “While Paul did bad in the past, he was changing and we had targetted him in 2004 to help us change Laventille. Already he was assisting people with URP and was at the forefront of getting the guns off the street, and he was also a part of the peace talks to change the area. His loss is a sad miss for the area.” Another teary-eyed community worker shared Smith’s view asking, “why it is whenever someone is changing for the better, he or she is killed? “He wanted to change his life so much that he moved from Pashley Street and went Maloney Gardens to live.” Paul was released from prison three years ago after being found not guilty of the murder of Prison Officer Jaikaran Goolcharan several years ago during a prison break in Port-of-Spain. At the time, he was on remand for another murder, from which he was also acquitted in court. Initially, police theorised that Paul’s “shot” was called from inside by a murder accused who, with two other relatives, is before the court charged with the murder of an NHA worker in Morvant last year. It was believed that Paul encouraged the eyewitness to go to court despite threats to his life.

Sources however told Newsday that Paul, a member of the notorious Gambino gang and the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, was shot because “he took another gang leader’s girl.” Paul was one of the several so-called “community leaders” who controversially met with Prime Minister Patrick Manning during the beginning of his term of office in 2002. Acting on information, at around 2.30 pm members of the Inter-agency Task Force, led by Inspector Sahadeo Singh, went to a house 300 yards from the murder scene and arrested a 32-year-old man. A gun believed to have been used in the shooting was also seized.  The man is expected to appear in court on Friday. Inspector John Martinez is conducting the investigation.