MURDED ... (true story about my uncle)

PART 1

Just hours after welcoming his mother back to Trinidad from New York, a 27-year-old man was killed in front of her during a botched robbery at a Sangre Grande bar just after midnight on Sunday.

One of the two bandits who stormed the bar was also killed by the 27-year-old man’s cousin, an off-duty police officer.

The outcome of the early morning exchange led to a tense scene at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, where the relatives of Abdul Ali sat facing the relatives of the man they believed triggered his demise.

The circumstances leading to their chance meeting occurred shortly after midnight at the Cheers Bar in Sangre Grande.

Ali along with several relatives including his mother went to the bar at Ramoutar Street, Sangre Grande, after picking up his mother at the Piarco Airport.

While they were having drinks, two masked men walked in. One of them fired a shotgun as they announced a hold-up, police said.

Ali’s brother-in-law, PC Hamre Lackraj of the Inter Agency Task Force, was also among the limers. He was off-duty but he had his service pistol with him, police said.

While the bandits were robbing the bar, Lackraj withdrew his own gun and fired at the bandits, police said. There was a shootout between the officer and the bandits during which Ali was hit once in his neck, investigators said.

The shot bandit was later identified as Johnny Dolland, 31, a criminal deportee of Foster Road, Sangre Grande. He was shot five times about the body, according to an autopsy report.

Dolland’s accomplice managed to escape during the crossfire, police said. He remained at large up to press time last night.

Ali was rushed to the nearby Sangre Grande District Hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Dolland’s body was found lying on the ground near a pool table in a room to the back of the bar, police said.

Homicide as well as Sangre Grande CID detectives visited the scene and Dolland’s body was removed to the Sangre Grande mortuary and then to the Forensic Science Centre.

The Express met both families sitting quietly in the centre’s waiting room yesterday.

Dolland’s cousin told the Express that she “always knew him as a quiet person” and “really don’t know what went wrong”.

Glen Dolland, Dolland’s uncle, said that the last time he saw his nephew was on Friday, around 5.30 p.m.

“He called me earlier that week and said that he needed money” following which he met him and he handed him $200 “to tide him over the weekend”. He said that he had no idea what else his nephew, “a construction worker”, was into.

The Dolland post-mortem was done first following which his family left the building after receiving documents from the examination.

Sham Ali, Ali’s other brother-in-law, also spoke to the Express yesterday after witnessing the post-mortem for Abdul Ali. He admitted to the Express that, “this feeling of having to watch the relatives of Dolland was not nice.”

“I really wanted to be elsewhere,” he said afterwards. He also admitted that he did not know who they were prior to speaking to them but after he found out who they were the conversation quickly fizzled out.

Sham Ali said that his brother-in-law was the father of a boy and girl from a previous marriage and that he had a second girl from his present marriage.

The Express also spoke with Ali’s brother, Fawwaaz Ali, 18, who said, “If it wasn’t for Hamre real people would have been dead. What happened was unbelievable and very shocking.”

The Express also spoke with the daughter of the bar owner who did not want her name mentioned. She said, however, that they have been operating the bar for the last 16 years and this was the first time they had been robbed. The bar will re-open tomorrow, she said.

She said that they usually close early on a Sunday but when the Alis went to the bar they recognised them and decided they would close after they left.

She said that despite the incident they will not close down the bar but will start closing earlier..