(Trinidad Express) Bread and breadfruit were the substance of the argument among three male relatives that led to Tuesday’s early-morning fire at Building 2, Trou Macaque, Laventille.
One of the men set ablaze his relative’s apartment, resulting in the deaths of four people and an unborn child, the hospitalisation of several building residents and the relocation of some 20 families.
Speaking with the Express yesterday, residents described the suspect as a “miserable fella”, who was known to behave erratically.
The relatives’ neighbour and erstwhile counsellor, Anthony Knights, told the Express that, on several occasions, he would refuse to listen to the complaints of the relatives who argued over things such as spousal arrangements, food and finances.
Knights said prior to the arson attack, the suspect threw hot water on one of his relatives for not working and eating all the food.
“What you think that was all about? Is bread and breadfruit, yuh know! He come home and the man eat he food and he get vex and wet down all he bed and the water wet down by me. When I went upstairs, the man tell me he (the suspect’s relative) eat he (the suspect) breadfruit,” Knights said.
Knights added that, on several occasions, the suspect would turn his rage on another relative, who had rights to the apartment.
“He (the suspect) always getting away with them (his relatives). One (relative) because he always eating out he (the suspect) food and the next one well he vex he get a woman so I tell him get one too,” the part-time counsellor said.
Knights, who was the first to be handed keys to his new home in Oropune Gardens on Tuesday, said the new apartment does not have fire escapes but he has no choice but to go as his former apartment in Trou Macaque was directly below the one gutted by fire.
Knights’s uncle, who only gave his name as “Sheppard”, said the suspect should be given a “little taste of what he caused”.
“I don’t want to sound evil but I believe for the rest of his life he should get a little burn everyday because them people real suffer. If he live to see 70, every day is a little burn,” Sheppard said.
