Senior Reporter
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One day after a brazen daylight shooting at a Couva communal playpark left a couple dead, residents remain traumatised and afraid to leave their homes. Bloodstains were still visible on the grass and road at the playpark, and an eerie silence blanketed the community at Jade Court when Guardian Media visited yesterday. A football and a lollipop on the playground were stark reminders of the terror that unfolded on Friday, when Devaughn Toussaint, 38, and his girlfriend, Amelia Hernandez, 34, were killed.
The couple share a three year old child.
The ruthless killings, captured on CCTV, have triggered nationwide outrage.
Hernandez had just arrived home and parked alongside the park near Toussaint’s home. He came out to help her offload items from the trunk. Just after 2 pm, a gunman exited a grey Corolla, approached the couple, and opened fire.
The couple ran in different directions as the shooter pursued Toussaint, shooting him several times. Hernandez grabbed her daughter and ran through the playground as other children screamed and fled. She stumbled, and as her daughter watched, the gunman shot her dead. Screaming and crying, the child stood frozen for a few seconds before running away. The killer fled.
Resident Bishop Ezekiel Clarke, president of the Couva Police Station Community Council, said the attack had shaken the area. “For a man to run up on other people and fire shots and, in the end, murder two people in front of several little children, that is atrocious. This is unacceptable.”
He said the incident should concern not only residents but the entire nation, and called for introspection “because we are going down a point of destruction.”
Clarke, who preaches at the School of St Francis Spiritual Baptist Church in Mon Repos, Morvant, described Toussaint as quiet and easygoing.
Still reeling from the incident, Kathy, a 42-year-old mother of three, said her ten-year-old son was one of the children running during the shooting.
Describing how she felt upon seeing the video, she said, “Heartbroken, because next thing it was my child lying on the ground if a bullet had passed. The man was shooting wildly; it could have been my child. It was very heartbreaking, and my son is traumatised along with the other children in the area here because they don’t even want to come back outside to play.”
Describing her community as close-knit and peaceful, she added, “The children are always outside playing. Sometimes, all after nine parents sit outside on the bench. The children run in the park because it is a secure, safe, comfortable area.”
Another resident said his two nephews, aged six and eight, were also playing in the park when the gunman started shooting. One of his nephews had his hands over his ears as he ran for his life.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles said the incident also left her heartbroken. In a Facebook post, Beckles stated, “Having witnessed this horrific video of such a heinous shooting, my heart breaks for these children. I pray they receive the psychological and social support they need, especially the daughter of the deceased. Sweet Trinidad and Tobago, we are better than this brutality.”
Psychiatrist Dr Varma Deyalsingh expressed concern over the incident and warned about the psychological toll of violence in communal spaces.
“When violence penetrates residential communities, it creates collective insecurity. Social spaces shrink. Families withdraw. Public life contracts. A society cannot thrive when its citizens are psychologically barricaded. The result can be heightened public anxiety and reduced social trust. Repeated exposure to such violence creates chronic, traumatic stress at a societal level.”
