The murder toll for 2015 in Trinidad stands at three. Last year ended with 403 murders, compared to 407 in 2013. Photo: Mass.gov

Reports are that around 12.02 a.m. yesterday, Vernon Carter was looking at fireworks with his grandson outside his Woodstar Avenue home, when he suddenly collapsed.

His son Kriston Carter told reporters that it was not until the retired postman was rushed to the Arima Health Facility that relatives were told he had been shot. He said because of the loud explosions from fireworks at the time, they did not hear the gunshots.

“He was showing my son fireworks and all of a sudden he just dropped and held his side. We thought he get a stroke or a cramp and we saw the blood but thought he fell and got cut or something,” the younger Carter said.
“He kept saying ‘it burning, it burning’,” he added.

Carter was pronounced dead at hospital.

“We didn’t realise he was shot until we reach in the hospital. The nurse saw him and said it looked like gunshot wounds on the left side of his stomach,” Kriston said.

He described his father as a “people person” who was liked by everyone in the area.

“He was the postman for Maloney at one point. Anybody could vouch for him that he was a real nice guy.”
The elderly man’s killing was recorded as the first murder for the year.

Meanwhile, around 4 a.m., 40-year-old United States deportee Sherwin Skeete was shot and killed along Pinto Road in Arima.

Pinto Road police told the Express that Skeete and another man, Simeon Bravo, both of Pinto Road, were liming when a car pulled up and the occupants fired several shots.

Residents of the area also mistook the gunshots for fireworks.

Skeete was later pronounced dead at the scene, while Bravo was rushed to the Arima Health Facility where he was stabilised.

Investigations into both killings are continuing.

And in South Trinidad, a 32-year-old Claxton Bay ex-convict who was trying to turn his life around was shot dead near his home yesterday. Sheflan Rampersad, of St John’s Trace, was discovered by police with multiple gunshot wounds at St Margaret’s Junction at around 5 a.m.

Rampersad was pronounced dead at the Couva District Health Facility.

His mother, Tara Sookraj, said he was a drug user, but after he was released from prison he got jobs and did not interfere with anyone. “I did not want him here because he used drugs and there are little children here. He got a job and was staying at his employer. Months ago I told him I would spend the money and put him in rehab. But he never answered me,” said Sookraj.

According to a police report, officers of the St Margaret’s Police Station received an anonymous tip-off that someone was shot at St Margaret’s Junction.

Rampersad’s father, Winston Samnarine, said: “I was speaking to my sister when I just got a bad feeling. Then after five this morning someone told me they heard Sheflan got damaged. I walked out the road and then someone else told me he got shot. A little while again another person told me that he got killed.”

Sookraj said she did not believe her son was killed because of a dispute over drugs.

“St Margaret’s is a very hot place. Everyday there is a different story with all sorts of things happening there. There were a lot of sprangers who lived on the junction who did not like him,” said the mother.

She said in 2001 he was sentenced to serve five years and seven months in jail for possession of marijuana. 
He was released, and shortly after he returned to prison to serve time for committing a robbery.

“He changed after he came out of prison and he promised to never again thief or rob. He was a multi-skilled tradesman assistant, and was very good at that,” said Samnarine. “Although he was on drugs he would not hustle for money. What he worked for he would spend it on drugs.”

Police said they are uncertain of the motive for the killing, and there are no suspects. Rampersad’s was the third murder for the new year, and the first in South Trinidad.

Homicide Bureau (South) is continuing investigations.

The murder toll for 2015 stands at three. Last year ended with 403 murders, compared to 407 in 2013.