Gyasi Gonzales gyasi.gonzales@trinidadexpress.com
Wednesday, February 24th 2010
POLICE and soldiers toting sub-machine guns guarded the McHutchinson and Roberts families yesterday as they moved out of Gonzales, following Monday morning’s massacre in which four of their relatives were killed by gang members.
Police have also begun both foot and mobile patrols on a 24-hour basis in the community as they fear a complete resurgence of gang warfare which, for years, had been kept in check through the efforts of two Roman Catholic priests.
The four were killed while they slept at their Blackett Lane, Gonzales, home around 12.30 a.m. on Monday.
The attack was triggered after two members of a rival gang from Bath Street, East Dry River, visited the victims’ home on Carnival Monday to have their hair plaited.
The victims-Javon Roberts, 18, Asha Roberts, 23, Carmen McHutchinson, 68, and LL Shakkeil Roberts, 13, were killed instantly. Their joint funeral has been tentatively scheduled for Saturday. Two other relatives, Jehial Roberts, 23, and four-year-old Zara Sylvester, remain in hospital. According to relatives yesterday, they are both are out of danger.
Sylvester is at the Paediatric Ward of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex and was listed as stable. She underwent emergency surgery on Monday.
Roberts, however, is also listed in stable condition at the Port of Spain General Hospital and remains under police guard.
