(Trinidad Guardian) After he was released from prison a few years ago, former felony murder convict Wendell Simmons, 43, vowed never to return. However, his plans for a new life came to a tragic end when he was shot to death in Claxton Bay.
“He was happy and enjoying life,” said his grieving aunt Marva Simmons, 69, who said she last saw him when he left home for work on Thursday night.
Preliminary investigations stated that around 9.10 pm Simmons was liming at JJJ Little Kitchen Roti Shop, on Cedar Hill Road, Claxton Bay, when a masked man dressed in a hoodie ran out of the bushes and began firing at him.
Even after Simmons fell to the ground, the gunman continued firing at him. Simmons died at the scene. Another man was shot in the elbow and was treated at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Police are still trying to determine a motive.
In an interview at her Tortuga home yesterday, his aunt said she had no idea why someone would want to hurt him.
“That was my real loving nephew, real loving nephew. He was real nice. He wasn’t in no trouble when he come out and thing. Everything was going good with him. He now start to see his lil way and thing and this thing come and happen,” she said.
“I don’t know what it is cause it because he never tell me that he had any problem outside.”
She considered Simmons her son as she had cared for him since he was a baby. His mother lives in the United States.
Simmons and Nigel “Cat” Rodriguez were charged with the murder of Nigel Allen who was found in a grave on December 19, 2005, almost two weeks after he went missing. He had been strangled and stabbed.
Simmons and Rodriguez were charged with his murder and spent approximately ten years awaiting trial. In 2016 they pleaded guilty to felony murder and were sentenced to seven years in prison.
Simmon’s aunt described him as a jovial and hardworking person.
“Since he come out of prison he never get himself involved in no trouble. He was just peaceful and happy. He always used to say he not doing nothing to go back inside again,” she said.
She said just three years ago her son Peter Joseph was gunned down at his home in Claxton Bay.
“Every day is a killing … I does be afraid to put on the radio to listen to the news because when I hear it I remember my son who got killed,” she said.
Officers from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region 3 are investigating.