BROOKLYN, New York, CMC – Management of the grief-stricken St. Lucia team here says the side will play Sunday’s New York Caribbean Cup final in honour of their star striker who was shot dead on Monday.
Philip Tisson, 27, scored the game-winning goal to carry St. Lucia to a 1-0 win over St Kitts and Nevis in Sunday’s semi-final, only to be murdered execution style hours later as he sat in his car near a Brooklyn nightclub.
His team, though wracked with grief, vowed to compete in his memory.
“We have decided to play this final game as a tribute to Philip, who scored the single goal that propelled us to be in the finals,” said president and CEO Daniel Martin, whose squad will square off with Jamaica on Sunday.
Tisson, who played in St Lucia national team’s World Cup qualifying campaign, was his side’s leading scorer in the competition with five goals.
“This is a major loss to the team and to the league,” said Fred Ballantyne, the St Vincent-born president of the Caribbean Cup.
“Nevertheless, we ask the community to come out and support the teams for the final championship game.”
Hailed as a hero after his goal-scoring heroics, Tisson celebrated on Sunday night into Monday morning at Tropiks, a club in Crown Heights where he spent his final hours.
After leaving the club, reports said Tisson and his friend Shawnette Justin, 24, went to buy bananas and were sitting in the football star’s car when he was shot by an unidentified gunman.
Detectives said they were looking for surveillance video taken from the area around the Utica Avenue club, and had also interviewed other persons at the club to see if Tisson fought with anyone while inside.
Tournament officials, meanwhile, have unveiled a fund to help pay for the player’s burial.
