(Trinidad Newsday) When calls to PC Nicholas Victor’s phone went unanswered on Tuesday night, Christmas eve, relatives assumed he was busy not knowing that he had been shot dead by bandits. His sister Marisa sent a message via Whatsapp asking Victor to call his girlfriend who was trying to reach him.
Victor, who was posted at the Traffic and Highway Patrol Branch, died minutes before his sister sent the message. Speaking to Newsday at the family’s home in Chase Village, Chaguanas, Marisa said a colleague on vacation in St Lucia had called and asked about Victor.
Another person called shortly after with the tragic news that he has been shot by bandits during a robbery at a supermarket in Kelly Village in Caroni. Marisa said, “My mother, of course, was inconsolable. He was her only son; she has three daughters. He was the son she hoped and prayed for. We are saddened by the loss. It took us by surprise. His girlfriend is also inconsolable at this time.”
Standing next to her twin sister Marsha, Marisa said Christmas has not been merry for her family. Victor was not married and did not have any children. Marisa said her shock and grief were deepened when videos and photos of Victor’s body at the crime scene began circulating on social media.
“Social media is not regulated in this country. Anything can be posted online by people who do not care about other people’s feelings. The sharing of these images of my brother’s bloodied body was painful. It jolted me. No one would like to see their relative in that manner on social media. Those who feel it, know it.”
She added, “Never would I thought that this would have come home to us, that my brother would have become a statistic in 2019 as we transition into a new year.” She said Victor, like their deceased father Emmanuel Carl Victor, was dedicated to his profession. The patriarch of the family was a retired policeman. He died before Victor joined the service.
Marisa said the family was waiting to confirm the facts of the killing. Police said Victor was off duty, providing private security, outside Rainbow Supermarket where two gunmen shot and killed him. An autopsy is expected to be done on Friday at the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James. His killers remain at large.
Trinidad: Off-duty cop shot dead by bandits
