(Trinidad Guardian) Less than a year after a 23-year-old father of two was kidnapped, he was gunned down at his job site in Point Fortin yesterday morning.
Jamal Ramnath, a construction worker of Cap-de-Ville, Point Fortin, was shot to death inside the house he was working on at Bowen Patino Heights, Cap-de-Ville. Another worker escaped unhurt.
Ramnath’s mother, Janelle Nelson, had dropped him off at work shortly before 8 am. He and his co-worker had started working on the house, which is under construction, last weekend.
Minutes after he got to work, two gunmen emerged from the bushes, and Ramnath and his co-worker ran. The gunmen chased after Ramnath, who ran up the stairs to the upper floor where he was shot multiple times. Speaking with reporters at the scene, Ramnath’s mother said by the time she got back home after dropping him off at work, someone told her that gunmen were shooting at her son.
The mother of four said, “So I started to call his phone and his phone was ringing, so I say probably he can’t answer the phone because he running from them.”
She was hoping that he would have survived.
“It really, really sad. I know he get himself in trouble before, but he was trying to be a good person. He was trying—as you can see he was working hard. This morning he was trying. I don’t know who did this for what, but I am leaving it in God’s hands.”
She said last September, her son was kidnapped along with three other men out at sea. Her son told her they were kept somewhere in Venezuela for 16 days. He was released after a ransom was paid. She said Ramnath had been charged with drug-related offences previously, but he had turned a new page in his life.
“He had gotten kidnapped last year and I know that give him a real scare. He also bring his son to live (with him). He was really trying and I was seeing the difference, but everybody not perfect. But this here what they do, he did not deserve that.” She advised mothers to do whatever they had to do to protect their children because, “out here, it real sad.” Ramnath had two sons, ages four and two.
Shocked over the brazen killing, the owner of the house said she would never have expected something like this to happen at her home.
“I did not even get to move in and this happened,” she said.
Other residents complained that there were no longer any safe communities as crime was affecting everyone.
Police retrieved 14 spent 5.56 shells at the scene.
Officers of the Homicide Bureau Region 3 are investigating.