Tobago Correspondent
The murder of a mother of one has angered relatives, Plymouth residents and left Chief Secretary Farley Augustine “heartbroken.”
Augustine also yesterday made a call for the TTPS to send specialist units to Tobago to treat with the crime problem.
Twenty-nine-year-old Nekisha Sandy became the third woman to be killed on the island for the year.
As news of her murder spread, her relatives were inconsolable as police cordoned off the area where she was shot to death.
The 29-year-old woman was ambushed by a gunman around 6 am near her Arnos Vale Road, Plymouth home. Police said she was walking to work at the time.
Sandy’s aunt collapsed on the ground as she arrived at the scene and wailed at the sight of her niece. Other relatives were in tears, while some, along with residents who knew Sandy, vowed vengeance.
One relative shouted, “What they feel we have, nobody ah wah. I’m going to buy big guns too. Big guns I’m going to buy. That is what they want, that is what they going to get. What they want, they will get.”
Senior Superintendent Rodhill Kirk urged relatives not to take matters into their own hands
Kirk told Guardian Media, “We understand what they are going through and we want them to know we would not discriminate. We just want them to cooperate with the police so that we can deal with this matter.”
Sandy leaves behind a son.
She is the third woman to be killed in Tobago this year. On May 4, Shellon Walters-Joseph was found dead over a precipice. Her car was then used in a drive-by shooting in Speyside. On March 26, Deborah Gopaul was found burnt and slumped over the steering wheel in her car, along the Claude Noel Highway. So far Tobago has recorded eight murders for the year. Yesterday, T&T’s murder count climbed to 201.
Farley wants specialist police units on island
Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, in a video message on Facebook yesterday afternoon, said the time had come for the TTPS to send specialist units to Tobago.
He urged Tobagonians to work with the police.
“I know you in your community are aware you have to get out there and be our eyes and ears. Notice I didn’t say be an informer,” he said.
Augustine said he was heartbroken over the island’s crime problem but he believes the root of the issue is much larger than the lack of jobs and opportunities.
“We do have people we are employing, who we hope we are taking off the street. They are taking our jobs and still not staying off the streets,” he added.
Augustine encouraged the police to also adjust their strategies to fight against the criminals.
“The issues lie in the values we hold as a community, and it’s time for the community to fight back.
“(We need) firm action, we require work in terms of intelligence gathering. We need the TTPS to bring its specialist units into the space. We will require the THA and central Government to spend additional resources.
"We can preserve life, limb and preserve tomorrow’s generation. We have to ensure that we act in a forceful manner as a community.
"Every shooting, every killing should put unease and discomfort among us sufficient that we take sufficient social action,” Augustine said.
Tobago needs its
own CoP—Duke
Meanwhile, Progressive Democratic Patriots political leader Watson Duke said the island’s crime problem had now reached a critical level and called for Tobago to have its own commissioner of police.
Duke, during a media conference, also called for the Tobago House of Assembly to have its own division to treat with serious crimes.
“Crime being a public health issue should be under the THA and there should be a division to deal with homeland security,” he said.
He demanded Tobago establish its “own police service, with our own commissioner of police, separate and apart from what exists now”.
“We desire our own prison service with our own commissioner of prison. We desire our own chief fire officer with our own fire service,” he said.