The facts behind Monday’s brutal Rio execution
Peter Garcia was once the country’s most wanted criminal. Was a family feud the reason why he was shot to death outside the Rio Claro Magistrate’s Court while in police custody?
There are many unanswered questions in the killing of the man once considered the country’s most wanted criminal.
Murder accused Peter Garcia was shot dead by brazen gunmen, on Monday, as he was being taken in handcuffs from the Rio Claro Magistrate’s Court last Monday accompanied by police officers
Senior Superintendent Margaret Sampson-Brown told reporters that Garcia had his murder cases adjourned and he was being taken back to the nearby Rio Claro Police Station located a mere 25 metres away when the bold killing occurred.
Garcia was accompanied by police officers and emerged onto the courthouse steps when the gunmen approached. The first gunman shot Garcia several times as the unarmed police officers abandoned their prisoner and took cover.
The second gunman stood over him and pumped several more shots into Garcia to make sure he was dead. The men then jumped a fence and ran onto nearby Sydney Street where they were whisked away by a waiting Silver Almera car.
The killers reportedly wore coveralls and hard hats. There is construction taking place on the compound of the courthouse, and it is believed the gunmen were posing as workers on the site, even though the construction site was not open on that day.
There is a common thread in all of the stories in the media on the series of events leading to Garcia’s killing: Many of the people interviewed spoke of “a family feud” that is said to be the real reason behind the killings.
However, the interviewees all opt to stop there, giving no details of the nature of the family feud, and what exactly the “families” are fighting about. Garcia’s father Harvey Huggins, who was interviewed soon after his son’s killing, also stopped short of telling reporters what the feud was all about, and said that he too, feared for his life.
According to one news report, Huggins said the killing of his son has only fuelled this “never ending war” between two families, but it is not his place to say anything.
Two anonymous posts appeared on a local news website in response to an interview of Garcia conducted by one television station on May 12, the day Garcia surrendered to police. So far, the posts offer the only clues to this mysterious family feud that continues to bloody the fertile earth in the once peaceful Southern town.
One post read: “Are you people serious? Does shaving his dreadlocks and exchanging his trademark camouflage gear for a white shirt vindicate this murderer? “Peter Garcia is a known career criminal turned four-time murderer, there are at least 13 outstanding warrants for his arrest: “Get the facts straight” He spoke with the Rio Claro police while he was on the run and threatened to kill them all.Look into his police record! “Everybody here in Agostini Village know that he killed four people, and his “supportive” mother stood by as he shot another victim three times at point blank range to the head.”
Another anonymous post read: “Do not be fooled people, this is a murderer! (Reporters) need to interview the children he left fatherless, the mothers whose sons he killed, and the families he left grieving. “His family does not care that he killed his own brothers, so why should we care? “They can try to clean up his image, but his heart is as black as sin!”
The authors of these posts blast reporters for not telling the real story and uncovering all of the facts (one post said: “You all no’s notin!”) but while they hide behind the cloak of anonymity, most of those interviewed by reporters have expressed a fear of being killed for speaking out, so the media could hardly be blamed for not publishing information that is not available.
The scared reaction of those villagers that reporters attempted to interview, plus the anonymous posts reveal that rural Rio Claro, once considered so safe that many slept with their homes unlocked, has now joined the ranks of Trinidad’s many communities where life has become difficult due to criminal activity.
The circumstances surrounding Garcia’s killing also adds some currency to disturbing allegations made by Garcia and others interviewed by Tntinsider and other media: Rogue police officers are (allegedly) playing a key role in crimes being committed in rural South-East Trinidad.
One Rio Claro resident interviewed by Tntinsider said (anonymously, of course) that the so-called “feud” is the result of envy: “Some people get jealous when they see others doing well, and will go so far as to kill somebody if they feel they doing better than them.” The resident then described how one key player in the “feud” (name called) met and greeted his childhood friend, and asked “how things?” The friend explained that things were looking up for him as he had just concluded a a transaction in which he had made a profit. Minutes later, he lay dead, shot at point blank range by the man who had just greeted him so warmly.
Another resident put a different spin on that story: “All of them running their racket, but when some get payoff and others get less or nothing, that is when they start to turn on each other,” he said. Probed for more information, the resident waved his hand and said “eh eh eh eh…not me, and don’t dare call my name in that eh.”
Asked if they believe the police are involved, the resident looked around nervously: “Like you want you and me to dead! “Look, the criminals doing what they want, thiefin cars, killing, thing that never happen in Rio before, and everybody know who doing what, but nobody ain talking and nobody gettin hold, what you think? “When the thing start to get out-of-hand, they say is one man do everything, but they hold he, and people still getting kill, and even the scapegoat come and get kill, so what you think?” he asked again rhetorically.
Two other residents told Tntinsider that they prefer to say nothing on the matter because they have received death threats: “Me, I not involved in the madness, but I am close to somebody that knows certain individuals, and because of that…..well, let’s just say I’ve been warned,” the female resident said.
The other resident was more direct, and told Tntinsider that he was indeed a target of the area’s rogue officers. He denied being involved in the area’s criminal activity that has been making the news in recent months, but admitted that he has had several “minor” narcotics matters over the years.
He insists that those hired to uphold the law in Rio Claro are the ones responsible for the community’s current crime wave. Asked if he believed the Police are involved in the recent murders, he whispered: “The police lawless, that is why the place so lawless.
They have to move all of them from that station, and bring in new officers, but aye, don’t say I say.”