More mothers and families were grieving at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, on Monday, as they gathered at the facility to view the autopsies of their loved ones after the murder toll rose to 128 over the weekend, 12 more than the corresponding period last year. The mother of one of the victims said she now felt disabled after her “right hand,” Kriston Gibbons, 19, was shot dead on Friday.
According to police reports, around 9.20 pm members of the North Eastern Division Rapid Response Unit responded to a report that a man was lying along Spring Trace, Upper Seventh Avenue, Malick, Barataria. They found Gibbons and rushed him to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Police believe Gibbons, of Councilman Circular, Upper Seventh Avenue, Malick, was killed during an altercation with another man.
Gibbons’ mother, Bernadette Joseph, said her son was a hard-working young man. “He got everything he wanted in life from working hard by the age of 14 years. He born and grow helping me in the market. They take away my right hand, my right hand. Look what they do to me now,” Joseph wept, adding she was a recovering cancer patient. “What are these young people doing? They don’t understand what they are doing to parents when they kill people so. He was 19 years,” she added.
Gibbons was shot once in the head his autopsy report revealed. Joseph likened her loss to losing an arm at the age of 50 and the debilitating feeling associated with it. Gibbons’s sister, Ashya, said her mother would not be the only mother to cry as the crime rate was escalating. She recalled reading a newspaper article about someone being killed and crying for the individual, only to come home and face the nightmare personally.
Also speaking at the centre were the relatives of Triston Proudfoot and Narissa Philip, who were killed Sunday in a fruit stall along the Valencia Old Road, Valencia. Proudfoot lived at Mark Trace, Valencia, with his girlfriend. Police said he was originally from Beetham Gardens, while Philip was originally from Phase Two, La Horquetta. Narissa’s mother, Latisha Ali, said she received the news of her daughter’s killing while at the Sangre Grande District Hospital.
“I honestly can’t say anything bad about her. She was always jolly, full of life and just amazing,” Ali said. “She moved with Triston because she loved him and they were always so happy together. They decided to open the fruit stall on their own because they wanted to have a life for themselves and then this happened. Right now we are just trying to hold on,” she added.
Paulinus Libert, Proudfoot’s great aunt, said as far as she was aware Proudfoot was never involved in any illegal activity. “He was a nice fella. He was peace-going, respectable, anybody in the neighbourhood could tell you that. He had a love for people, a love for children. I don’t know how come the two of them never really had kids because for the two years they together, he really loved kids,” Libert said.
Police reports stated that around 11 am on Sunday, residents of Valencia Old Road, Valencia, reported hearing several gunshots and on checking saw three men running into a blue Hyundai Matrix car which was parked outside a fruit and vegetable stall. When the residents checked they found the couple dead.
Police said Proudfoot was shot in the neck and upper body while Phillip was shot in her chest and right hand.