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KEVON FELMINE
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
The all too familiar scene of a mother screaming at the sight of undertakers removing her son’s body took the spotlight in Gasparillo yesterday, after 20-year-old Brandon Samaroo was gunned down.
Debbie Roopchand begged the police to let her touch her only son as they removed his body from a shed along Union Road where he sold watermelon to make a living. After being denied that small comfort, she fell to the ground screaming in anguish at his shortened life.
Roopchan and her 10-year-old daughter were inconsolable and had to be held back by relatives and friends who showed up in their numbers.
Reports stated that Samaroo, who lived at Tarouba, was in the shed at the front of the Country Tavern waiting for sales when a gunman ran up and shot him in the head and chest. When patrons of the tavern looked out, they saw the gunman running into a white Toyota Corolla Axio that was parked across the road and escape. By the time witnesses checked on Samaroo he was already dead.
Southern Division police led by ASP Ali Mohammed, Insp Gajadhar, Insp Ramkhelewan and Sgt Williams responded and coordinated searches for the suspects but up to yesterday, they had not been found. Robbery was not suspected as the motive as it seemed nothing was stolen. Investigators are working with the theory that someone ordered a hit on Samaroo’s life.
There were rumours at the scene that Samaroo had been threatened because of a business a close relative owns. Neighbours said a car similar to the one used by his killers was also seen in their community on Monday afternoon and suspect his killers were marking his movements, waiting for the right time to pounce. But Samaroo’s father, Bobby Samaroo, said he couldn’t say what led to his son’s murder.
“I was lying down when my sister-in-law came and woke me up. She said ‘Aye! They just shoot Brandon.’ I asked a friend to bring me up the road because I had no transport. Everybody was here already and he was already dead,” he told the T&T Guardian.
Bobby said one of his son’s friends told him that seconds before the murder he (friend) met with Samaroo as he was walking into the tavern and asked if he wanted something to drink. Samaroo told him he didn’t want anything as he had just got doubles. As the friend went inside the tavern he heard the two gunshots.
The family had been selling watermelon on the spot for close to 12 years, but with tragedy changing their lives, they’re unsure whether they would return.