(Trinidad Express) Trinidad-born United States citizen Deryck Harrinath loved the land of his birth and, after decades of residing abroad, he returned about seven years ago and built a house on his family’s land in South Oropouche.
On Sunday morning, Harrinath, 56, was headed to church when he was gunned down on the property in Krishna Gardens on Berridge Trace, Mon Desir Village.
His close relatives with whom he spent time daily are grieving for him and baffled over the motive for his killing.
The body of Harrinath, who was also known as Roger, was found on Monday morning in his garage next to his Mercedes-Benz.
When the Express visited his relatives yesterday, they expressed their shock and wept over the killing of a man whom they described as “easy-going and loving”.
“We know crime is high in Trinidad and it is horrible but you never think that it will happen to you and your family. I think these people (killers) are animals. But actually not even the animals are so horrible. I know he did not deserve this,” said Harrinath’s cousin, Sue-Ann Soong.
Harrinath was found by Soong and other relatives who went to check on him after numerous calls to his cellphone went unanswered.
The relatives looked through a window of his newly-built house and observed a body slumped against a wall.
One of the relatives climbed through a window and gained entry into the house where he was found unresponsive and motionless.
Soong said that as she walked into the driveway, she saw bloodstains and broken glass on the ground which led her to believe that he put up a fight against his killer(s).
“They shot at him while he was in the yard. They cornered him inside (the garage) and he pelt them with the wares (kitchen dishes). Then they closed back the garage door,” said Soong.
She added: “He did not deserve that. He came back here to live, he was loud and he lived by himself.”
Harrinath’s luxury car, personal possessions and the rooms in the house were untouched by the killers and police have ruled out robbery as the motive for his killing.
Crime scene investigators retrieved two spent nine millimetre shells near his body with injuries to his chest.
They killed my ‘son’
Soong’s mother, Radhir Seepersad, 63, wept for nephew Harrinath, whom she treated as her son.
She said he retired after working in the IT industry in the US and returned to Trinidad where he spent his days enjoying his retirement with family and friends.
“They killed my child,” said Seepersad. “He loved Trinidad; he didn’t want to live in Miami. He came back years ago and built his house. I don’t know what went on, God alone knows what went on. He called me on Sunday morning. I would do anything for him. He is a good and loving child. It is no robbery; they killed my child.”
Seepersad said that on Sunday morning he called her at around 7.50 a.m. and said to her that he would meet her at church.
When he did not turn up at church nor at her home later that day, she thought he was liming with his friends.
By the next morning when calls to his cellphone went unanswered, Soong and other relatives went to the house and discovered him dead.
