–body due to arrive Wednesday for burial

POLICE in Trinidad are yet to make an arrest in the April 6 murder there, execution style, of 22-year-old Guyanese youth, Raphael Collins.And neither have they handed over his body to his relatives, the Guyana Chronicle has learnt.
Reports out of Trinidad say that Collins, who hails from Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara, was shot multiple times about his head and upper body two Thursdays ago at a house just opposite where he lived in crime-ridden Laventille in East Port of Spain, Trinidad, while he was having his hair braided.
His father, Jermaine Scott, told the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday that no one has yet been arrested for the murder of his eldest child, and that although a post-mortem was done just hours after his demise, the body has not yet been released to relatives in Trinidad.
The bereaved father, however, said that arrangements are being made to bring his son’s remains home for burial, and that it is expected to be released to the family by Wednesday.
Collins had reportedly migrated to Trinidad in January 2016 with his aunt, Ms Holnie Scott and her children with the intention of making a positive change in the economic status of his family.
Before leaving, he’d even told his grandmother, Ms Volda Williams he was going to seek ‘a better life’ for them all.
While there, he had communicated with the family almost daily, and had made plans to visit for the Easter holiday.

PETER PAY FOR PAUL
According to the media in Trinidad, Collins’ murder is a clear case of of the innocent paying for the guilty in a heated gang war between rival criminal factions in the area.
Collins is reportedly one of three men so killed in less than 24 hours.
Reports carried in the April 12 Online edition of the Trinidad Guardian say the three men at reference were Collins, and Trinidadians Kern Alleyne, a 24-year-old Chef, and Ayinda Williams, 20, a handy-man.
Collins was gunned down the Thursday night, and by 14:45hours the next day, Williams was shot dead just next door.
Another man, Kenno Barnum, was shot dead around 15:30 hours the Sunday before as he drove along Erica Street; and that murder is also linked to the war.
“The murders of Williams, Barnum and Collins all took place off the Old St Joseph Road, Laventille, which borders the two warring gangs,” the Trinidad Guardian reported.
It said, too, that the relatives of all four men were adamant that they were no criminals; that rather they’ve been caught in the middle of a deadly war between criminal gangs in Laventille.
Barnum’s even suggested it was a case of tit-for-tat, whereby innocent men from one area were being targeted for the killing of other innocent men in another.
At the time of Collins and Williams’ death, the murder toll in Trinidad stood at 141 in 100 days.
Here in Guyana, Collins’ relatives described him as a peaceful individual who worked hard for his money. He worked as a baker at his aunt’s pastry-making establishment in Trinidad, and according to his paternal grandmother, Ms Linda Scott, the best time of his life was the last 15 months he’d spent in Trinidad with his aunt and her family.
She also told the Guyana Chronicle that contrary to reports that her grandson was shot while sitting in front of the young woman who was braiding his hair, relatives later learnt that he received the first shot as he entered the young woman’s house.
She said that relatives were told by an eyewitness that Collins was walking into the house behind the young woman when he met with a hail of bullets. She said she learnt that he tried to run back outside of the house but never made it farther than the patio.
The Guyana Chronicle was told, too, that investigators informed the family in Trinidad that their finding spent shells from two different weapons seems to suggest that there were two shooters instead of one. They also said that he was shot over 30 times, and not nine as was previously reported.
“He meet a cruel death; the best time in his life he ever had,” Collins’ heartbroken grandmother said.
“He was working; he didn’t have to do hard work! All he had to do was bake, go out there and sell and he get paid!”