The country has reached the 400 murder mark in just 234 days after the double-murder of five-year-old Anika Guerra and her father Enrico Guerra in Moruga Tuesday night by brazen gunmen who seemed intent on ensuring that Enrico was dead, even at the expense of his daughter whose life was cut short by killers with no conscience.
00:00Andy Guerra couldn't articulate his grief in words as his friend Francis
00:05Paul gave comfort to him at his son's mini mart in St. Mary's village Moruga
00:10today. Hours before Guerra's son Enrico and his five-year-old granddaughter were
00:16the mercy of an unrelenting gunman who chased him into his business place at
00:20Enrico's corner mart and pumped several bullets into him and his daughter was
00:25also inside. Investigators say the prison attack happened around 9.45 last
00:30night while Guerra was standing outside his business place speaking with another
00:34man. A gunman walking along the street shot at the men as Guerra took refuge in
00:40a shop in order to evade his attackers. However one of the men followed him into
00:44the shop where his five-year-old daughter was having her hair combed by
00:48a mother and opened fire. Guerra was shot multiple times in his head and back as
00:54well as his daughter who sustained gunshot wounds to her head, back and arm.
00:59While her father was pronounced dead on the scene the child was rushed to the
01:03Princesong District Health Facility where she passed away half an hour later.
01:08Francis Paul, a close friend of the family and a community activist who
01:12spoke on their behalf described these killings as cold and unsympathetic.
01:18It's a heartless way. Words can't describe what's going on here, you know. I mean, when you come in the middle of the night you're sure to get
01:28recovery. It's the last stop, you're sure to get something in. And when I heard last night it was really, and then the baby boy,
01:37caught by, but that's a heartless way. I mean, it's saddening. Paul, also visibly hurt by the
01:43killings, said the community, and by extension citizens of this country, do
01:48not feel safe anymore, and wondered if Commissioner of Police Eula Herewood
01:52Christopher or Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hines could
01:56tangibly empathize with the average citizen as violent crime continues to be
02:01a concern.
02:13I mean, I wish that the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of National Security could really feel what people are feeling right now in Trinidad.
02:20People are not safe, you know. The average person is not feeling safe in Trinidad right now.
02:24The average person wants to fly out of Trinidad right now.
02:27You're not safe nowhere, nowhere, nowhere. Long time ago they had crime hotspots, you know, hotspots again all over Trinidad, all over Trinidad right now.
02:34Senior homicide investigators say based on their information,
02:37Gero was an upstanding businessman in the area and had no criminal record,
02:42and was also not involved in any illegal activity, nor were there any threats to his family.
02:47However, senior homicide sources believe the shooting may be tied to an incident that occurred recently in the area,
02:53in which a well-known gang leader may have been involved, which potentially contained CCTV footage.
03:00Police say they are exploring these theories, but have not been able to establish a solid motive for the killing just yet.
03:06MB for Moruga Tableland, Michelle Benjamin, in a media release sent out this morning,
03:11said she was, open quote, sad and heartbroken by the tragic and senseless killings, close quote,
03:16of the father and daughter in the area and sent sympathies and prayers to the family.
03:21Benjamin also said in a release that there was, open quote,
03:25a growing and alarming trend that you have been witnessing in our community.
03:29Moruga Tableland, once a peaceful and close-knit area,
03:32has become a battleground for violent crime, close quote.
03:36Benjamin called on both Ministers Hines and Scotland in the Ministry of National Security
03:41to take immediate and decisive action to address the rampant crime in Moruga Tableland.
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