Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 08/Oct 04:52

Brothers killed as community feud turns deadly

A teenager and his 23-year-old brother died after they were among three people shot as ongoing community feud in Mt Hope ended in bloodshed on October 7. Jovel Paul, 15, and his brother Rodney Slater, were liming under a shed at the side of the road metres from their house at around 1.30 pm, when gunmen emerged from some tall bushes at a nearby hill. The gunmen unleashed a volley of shots which later left the brothers dead and their cousin critically wounded at hospital. When Newsday visited the community, bloodstains were still evident on the ground between two sets of chairs with playing cards scattered about. Their mother, who did not want to be named, said some of the young men in the area were being threatened by residents from a nearby community. Residents said they feud has been ongoing and they are not sure what started it in the first place. The shooting on Tuesday, the residents added, has left them very uneasy. “We fed up make reports (to police). We fed up. Nothing is being done,” said the grieving mother. “I can't function right now on. I just being calm because is God giving me the patience.” Another resident said, “Is young people doing this stupidness. Young men who grow up together and used to play together. You never thought that it would have turned into something like this.” Asked if she expects justice for her son’s deaths, the mother said, “I might not get justice from the law, but I sure I will get justice from God. I leave it in God's hands, as a mother. I have no gun, no rifle, no bomb, nothing here,” she added, “So I leave it in God hands.” The interview ended when the mother began to cry while her daughter stood nearby wiping away her own tears. The daughter asked, “How many people get shoot, mummy?” Her mother answered, “Your cousin is in hospital still, but Jovel and Rodney died, baby.” Residents who gathered nearby, warned that some members of the community, may not rely on God for justice. Warning the brothers' murders could result in acts of revenge, a man said, “It's not making no sense. But it has to be done. Somebody will feel it!” Other residents told Newsday they felt as though the police had failed to protect based on the number of reports made about the threats levelled by residents of the nearby community. A man said the lack of concern shown by the police could easily change. “Is it that I have to run down the road and anybody I see from over there, I have to shoot them down? Then maybe they (the police) might start patrolling more. Because I have to walk out the road to meet my boss man every morning…how I could feel safe walking out the road?” Residents said they see no end to the ongoing rift and believe increased police patrols might be the only thing to ease the situation. “The problem is them over there born dunce, fully dunce, and we over here is a different story. It’s about envy and jealousy,” added a man in the group. Asked if the feud was forcing residents out of the community, a single mother responded, “If I had somewhere else to go, I would I go, but where?” She claimed that police, while responding to previous situations in the community, advised residents to leave. The post Brothers killed as community feud turns deadly appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.