(Trinidad Guardian) Homicide officers are continuing investigations into the murders of two Tabaquite men and have already taken statements from several villagers. Some of them have described Roderick Titus Jr, 39, a father of four and Justin Guerra, 25, both of Tabaquite, as village pests.
However, while Titus had a criminal record and had served five years imprisonment for robbery, Guerra’s family has come out in defence of him saying he never had any run-ins with the law. They say he was following bad company and was probably killed in a case of mistaken identity.
Titus’s parents Roderick Titus Senior and Angenie Baldeo-Titus say the life he lived on the outside was not the one he lived at home. His mother said he would help his father reap crops and had planned to go into gardening this year. But villagers described Titus as a robber who carried a gun and harassed villagers.
“He was not nice at all. He should have died a long time,” one resident said on Sunday.
The men were shot and killed around 4.20 am at Carry Trace.
A corporal attached to the T&T Defence Force is at the centre of the fatal shooting. He told police around 4 am he was liming near Estacy Bar on the Tabaquite Main Road when a man he did not know walked up to him, pulled out a silver and black firearm and said: “Yuh go dead today.”
A struggle ensued and the soldier subdued the assailant and took away the firearm. He called the police and while waiting for officers to arrive, the assailant walked off with another man towards the Tabaquite Basketball court.
The soldier said he followed the men to bodies today.