The community of Rancho Quemado in Erin recoiled in shock yesterday when a young father of three was shot dead and left in a ditch by his killer, hours after a community sports day ended.
According to police, Carlon Seerattan, 30, was walking close to Los Charos Junction in the company of his friend, Rondell Jervais, 28, around 12.30am when the two were approached by a lone gunman. The two were leaving the area after liming at the sports day.
The man fired several shots, hitting Seerattan in the chest and killing him.
Jervais was also hit and is warded in the San Fernando General Hospital.
The T&T Guardian visited Seerattan’s father’s house yesterday, where relatives cried out for justice for the young father. His children, aged 10, six and four were not at home at the time.
“I need justice, I need the police to do their work because a lot of crime is unsolved. Down here just getting worse,” Carl Coutou, Seerattan’s father, said.
“The police not doing their work at all. They only running after the small man with the little weed and cocaine but they not going after the big man with the guns.”
Describing the eldest of his five children as a loving and hard-working person, Coutou said his son did not deserve to die in that manner.
Seerattan’s aunt, Bernadette Sandra Coutou, echoed his sentiments, sending this message to his killer: “Allyuh stop killing the people. Allyuh didn’t bound to kill my nephew like a dog. Even though he really had...I don’t know if he had anything with anybody, I don’t know.”
“Sometimes you out and somebody talk to you and you too bad. Allyuh coulda talk and solve the problem. Allyuh didn’t bound to kill him.”
MP for La Brea, Nicole Olivierre, visited the family and also expressed surprise that Seerattan was killed as she said those types of crimes do not happen in the area.
“This is the first time in my knowledge this has happened in this community and it is a wake up call for us. In other communities this type of thing happens on a regular basis, so it is a wake up call for us that we need to check ourselves and go back to the old community values to ensure these types of behaviour do not become a regularity,” Oliverre said.
She called on the elders in the community to take more of a role in the lives of youngsters.
“If we look back at decades gone by and we see how communities came together and there was a lot of community engagement, so whenever the young ones had differences they could always work those things out. Back in those days there would have been leaders in the community acting as mediators and when you have all the elders in the community taking responsibility for the lives of all the children, you do not allow disturbances or disagreements to escalate to a point where it ends up in violence.”
She also made a call for those in the community who know about criminal activity to report those matters to the police.
“I urge anyone, if you know about anyone who has guns or weapons, you need to get that information to the police so we can stem this growing tide of violence that is creeping into our community.”
