(Trinidad Guardian) Moruga farmer Damien Mollineau planned to pamper his wife on Boxing Day yesterday by cooking for her while she rested.
Instead, he died on her lap while being rushed to the hospital after he was shot in his garden not far from their Edward Trace, Moruga home.
Before he died he told his brother and wife the name of the person who shot him. Police have since arrested the alleged shooter who lives in the community.
When the T&T Guardian visited Mollineau’s home where he lived with his wife Natalie Riley-Mollineau and his four children, 17, 12, eight and five, relatives, friends and villagers were distraught.
In an emotionally-charged atmosphere filled with sadness, grief and anger, they were trying to come to terms with his death. The shooting took place around 7.15 am.
Mollineau, 40, had asked his older brother Alfred Douglas to take him to his garden in his (brother) van, as his vehicle had a punctured tyre. When they arrived, Douglas said his brother asked him to wait for him and he exited the van.
Barely able to contain his grief, Douglas recalled that as his brother walked into the garden he heard a loud explosion. “I hear bow! That was the first round they shoot. I say like somebody hunting. The second one I hear he start to bawl ‘Ibo, Ibo, Ibo, (name call) shooting me boy. (Name call) shooting me boy, (Name call) I see yuh boy. (Name call) I seeing yuh boy, yuh shooting meh boy (name called), yuh shooting meh.’ And he run and he come by the slay where he does tie he bison and the bag he was going in the garden, he leave it right there.”
Douglas showed his vest, that was stained with his brother’s blood which was running down his brother’s face.
He said Damien was shot on his face, arms and back. Douglas who walks with a stick sobbed, “I try to hold him. I tell him doh fall down in the mud because I can’t tote yuh.” Douglas said he managed to get him into his van and drove to Mollineau’s home. Mollineau’s wife, a housewife, said she heard Douglas bawling out and she jumped off her bed. She saw her husband exiting the van with blood running down his face. He told her the name of the person who had shot him.
His wife said as they headed to the Princes Town Health Facility in his nephew’s van, Mollineau’s head was on her lap. As the tears flowed down her face Riley-Mollineau said her husband knew he was dying.
He say, “Natalie ah can’t make, I go dead.” He died before he reached the health facility.
Recalling the moments before her husband left home to go to the garden, she said when she got up he was already getting ready to go to the garden.
“Yesterday we paint, we cooked and we baked. And he said Natalie today you will put up your foot and I will cook.”
She said one of his resolutions for the New Year was to go to church with her and their children. They had been married for five years. She described him as a respectable, very nice and family-oriented person.
His friend Davis “Sarg” Lezama lamented, “He was like my lil brother. He did not deserve to die like that. He work hard to provide for his family.” His relatives said Mollineau loved his family and hunting.
Investigators said Mollineau and the suspect had an altercation two years and his life was threatened. However, he and the suspect were once again on speaking terms just before his murder.