An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

A Bel­mont fa­ther of three was yes­ter­day killed min­utes af­ter he ar­rived at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah (QPS), Port-of-Spain, to col­lect his son from foot­ball train­ing in what his com­mon law wife be­lieves was a reprisal.

Ma­sud Pros­per, 49, a dri­ver at­tached to the Min­istry of Health, was shot sev­er­al times as he sat in his black Lancer car, which was parked along the area re­ferred to as the “Drag.”

Al­though the in­ci­dent around 5.30 pm forced some peo­ple to aban­don their dai­ly ex­er­cise rou­tines, many oth­ers con­tin­ued as nor­mal, with food ven­dors al­so con­duct­ing the usu­al sales.

Guardian Me­dia was told that Pros­per, who lived at Belle Eau Road, Bel­mont, had ear­li­er at­tend­ed the fu­ner­als of two of the vic­tims who were killed dur­ing a fa­tal shoot­ing on April 19 along La­dy Young Road, Mor­vant. (See page 9)

Cry­ing even as she de­mand­ed an­swers last evening, Adisha Clarke de­scribed Pros­per as, “a light soul.”

Clarke said they had spo­ken just af­ter 3 pm be­fore he left to run er­rands and col­lect his nine-year-old son.

Say­ing Pros­per was ac­cus­tomed to “tak­ing a sweat” with oth­er men in the QPS as he wait­ed on foot­ball train­ing to con­clude, Clarke asked, “Where all the peo­ple who does be up un­der him? Where them?”

Point­ing to the car, which bore bul­let holes on both sides and the rear, Clarke wept bit­ter­ly as she said, “He did not de­serve this.”

Rel­a­tives of Pros­per, who were present at the QPS, said the killing took place in front of his son, who was tak­en away from the scene af­ter the at­tack. They said the de­ceased was com­mit­ted to his work and tak­ing care of his son, but al­so liked to par­ty.

Clarke mean­while, said, “Every­body used to grav­i­tate to­wards him. He was a good soul...a good man.”

Re­veal­ing they were “patch­ing things up” and had on­ly agreed to put their trou­bles be­hind them yes­ter­day, Clarke said Pros­per had al­ways been the one urg­ing her to take safe­ty pre­cau­tions and to “stay in­side as the place wild.”

She said, “I think­ing he hav­ing a time play­ing foot­ball.”

Clarke’s five-year-old daugh­ter, who was stand­ing near­by, chimed in, “He was Un­cle P!”

Asked why Pros­per may have been a tar­get, she said, “Since I with this man, I nev­er know him to be in any kind of vi­o­lence, or any kind of gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties, noth­ing what­so­ev­er. He goes to work. He mind his busi­ness. He come home. He sees bout his son. He was a sin­gle fa­ther, try­ing his best. He did not de­serve that at all.”

Clarke said she had a con­ver­sa­tion with her daugh­ter dur­ing the day yes­ter­day and when she told her bed­time would be at 8 pm, on­ly to have the child re­spond, ‘Six and sev­en is not nice fam­i­ly mem­bers...nice peo­ple’.

“That is my five-year-old child who goes nowhere. She in­side but she could tell me six and sev­en is not good fam­i­ly mem­bers.”

An­gry that chil­dren were grow­ing up with that di­vide and ha­tred al­ready be­ing in­stilled in them by war­ring adults, Clarke said, “I told her doh study that.Study how to tell the time, cause I don’t want to hear bout no six and sev­en is not good fam­i­ly mem­bers. And look...I sure this is the re­sult of that same stu­pid­ness.”

Seek­ing to dis­tance Pros­per from any gang, she again in­sist­ed, “That man have noth­ing to do with any gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties and he did not de­serve that. We cyar be liv­ing like this...we need to do some­thing.”

Clarke urged peo­ple to be wary of the friends and com­pa­ny they keep.