(Trinidad Express) Hangings must resume in this country.
So said a relative of Anslem Douglas, one of the three murder victims shot multiple times on Sunday night.
The triple murder, the first of its kind to rock the island, took Tobago’s 2024 murder toll to 15, one more than the whole of 2023. The national murder toll stood at 299 last night compared with 301 last year.
Douglas, 56, of Black Rock, Samuel McKain, 56, of Mt Pleasant, and Gregory Hamlet, 53, of Golden Lane, were shot dead in Black Rock, Tobago, while Jumoke Duncan was shot multiple times and is hospitalised in a critical condition.
Police have determined the triple murder is gang-related.
A relative of Douglas who wished not to be named told the Express there appears to be a “gun storm” in Tobago following the passage of Hurricane Beryl and she is calling for a resumption of hangings.
“Well that has always been my cry. The law is there, enforce it, but there’s always a hindrance for that to happen because we have too many bright attorneys-at-law who always feel that we are taking away the self-esteem of the criminal. You know you need to hang them, the Bible spoke of that,” she said.
The concerned relative said this is the first time she has experienced crime of this magnitude in Tobago. “Besides living in Trinidad for a little while for four years working with the PSA I lived here for all of my life and this is the first time that there’s such an upsurge in crime criminal activities and to see that we have this we woke up this morning (yesterday) you know experiencing three deaths by gunshot. You know criminal activities that have never ever erupted in Black Rock like this,” the relative said.
The relative also called on parents to practise better parenting. In addition, she is calling on the authorities to have a better handle on the escalating crime situation in Tobago. “I also think that there has to be some way that politicians, the law enforcement agencies can work together to limit the accessibility of guns in this little Tobago. If we continue like that I have a little granddaughter she might not have a husband,” she said.
Sources told the Express that McKain was the target of the three shooters and the attack may have been a revenge killing for the July 1 murder of Nathan Roach of Mt Pleasant.
According to police, around 12.04 a.m. yesterday a group of persons were gambling in Black Rock, when they were approached by three armed men who shot Douglas, McKain and Duncan dead. The assailants, who wore camouflage clothing, escaped in a silver Aqua vehicle which was later found abandoned on Toby Drive, Lowlands.
Autopsies are to be performed to determine the cause of death.
Senior Superintendent of Police Rodhil Kirk told the Express yesterday that a number of people were questioned and Tobago police are following certain leads in solving the case.
Rowley, Farley talk crime
Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, in responding to the upsurge in crime in Tobago, said yesterday that all efforts are being made to stem the tide. “I am confident that Tobago will come out shining and grow as an island. We have some challenges with crime being on the rise as a social ill and that’s one of things that we are working hard at ensuring we can turn the statistics in the other direction but as an island community let’s continue to work,” Augustine said.
Meanwhile, a media release issued by the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday stated Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley wrote to the Augustine on Friday inviting him to attend a meeting of the National Security Council today at the Office of the Prime Minister, Central Administrative Services, Tobago.
The Prime Minister travelled to Tobago on Saturday.
The Minister of National Security and members of the leadership of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service will attend the meeting.