(Trinidad Express) Should they return to the Beverly Hills, Laventille, area after being relocated to San Juan several years ago, death would be imminent.
This according to a group of residents who claimed that “gangsters” in the area were issuing death threats to them and vowing to carry out future fire-bombing of their apartments should they return.
The group visited the Express and the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) yesterday to voice their concern on the issue.
Spokesperson for the group, Pamela Lee, said, seven years ago she and the other families were relocated from Beverly Hills as the HDC was required to rebuild the apartment building where they lived.
She said they were relocated to a private apartment building free of charge at First Street, San Juan, but claimed that during their time there, several men in Beverly Hills occupied their old apartments and made it into their own homes.
She said she and the others were recently informed by the HDC that their time in San Juan expires today and that they were required to return to the Beverly Hills apartments.
Lee said when the group attempted to move back into their Laventille apartments, the men threatened to kill them and firebomb the apartments should they return.
Shortly after leaving Express House, the group returned with the information that one of their relatives had just minutes before been gunned down outside his Beverly Hills home.
He has since been identified as 23-year-old construction worker Junior Alexis. Police said around 2.45 p.m., Alexis was standing outside his home when he was approached by a gunman who opened fire. He was shot several times about the body before collapsing in a drain where he died.
Investigators said they could not confirm Alexis’s murder was linked to the issue raised by his family, but the group said they firmly believed the shooting was a message being sent, warning them not to move back into the area.
On the morning of December 14, Lee’s sister Antionette Lee had her apartment firebombed and has since moved out of the area. Pamela Lee said after the threats were made against them, reports were lodged at the Besson Street Police Station and a letter was made available to each of them by the police in order to take to the HDC highlighting their concern.
However, Lee said when they went to the HDC, officials there advised them nothing could be done about the situation.
Contacted yesterday, chairman of the HDC Jearlean John denied “gangsters” had occupied the Beverly Hills apartments. She said the buildings have only recently been completed with the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) outfitting the building with electricity on Thursday “so how could gangsters take over the place?” she asked.
John said the apartment in which the residents were relocated to in San Juan was a private residence for which rent was being paid for by the HDC.
“We cannot keep them there indefinitely. That is a private residence and HDC was paying the rent for all these years. What I can say is if they do not want to go back to the HDC apartment then they can make arrangements on a private basis because we cannot relocate everybody in Trinidad and Tobago whenever they want to be relocated. And if it is the crime that they are concerned about, then that is an issue for the police to deal with,” said John.
But Lee insisted the issue was not that they did not want to return to the area.
“It is not that we do not want to go back, but that we cannot go back. If we were to go back there we would be dead. We were threatened at gunpoint and now the HDC is telling us that they cannot do anything about that and we have to go back to Beverly Hills,” she said.
She said another resident who made the move to return to Beverly Hills some months ago was shot four times. He has also since left the area she said. Lee said approximately 16 families would have nowhere to call home from this morning, as the HDC stated if they do not vacate the San Juan apartment they would be forced to leave.
“They said that they do not have any place for us to go, but look at the people from Trou Macaque (who were victims of an arson attack last week Tuesday). In one day they found apartments for them in Oropune Gardens,” Lee said.
