KILLED FOR GOLD
Workmen gunned down in El Socorro bar
By: Carolyn Kissoon and Peter Christopher (T&T Express).
A ceiling contractor and his employee were gunned down while buying food at a bar in El Socorro on Wednesday night.
Jason Dwarika, owner of Gypsum Interiors, was shot in the back before bandits ripped off his gold chain. He was then shot in the neck, an eyewitness said.
His employee, 19-year-old Ashton Daniel Jonas, was shot in the back while running away, police said.
Another employee, Shane Lochan, hid under a table and escaped unhurt.
The shooting happened around 10.30 p.m. outside D Corro Pub on the El Socorro Main Road. The men were doing their very first job ever in Northern Trinidad.
"We had just finished the job and was coming home, when we stopped to get something to eat. I went to the adjoining bar to get some drinks and my boss and Ashton were getting the food. I just hear a lot of noise and when I realised it was gunshots I ran and hid under a table," he said.
Lochan, 28, who was in shock yesterday, described his boss as "a loving, generous man who would never hesitate to help someone in need".
Dwarika, 26, was the father of two girls-Abbi, five, and three-year-old Ariel.
He lived at SS Erin Road, Debe with his 25-year-old wife, Lauren.
"I don't know what, they kill my husband for a chain. They kill my husband for what? A $10,000?," she said outside the Forensic Science Complex in St James yesterday.
The widow told the Express that at about 10.15 p.m., her husband called her, telling her that he was coming home soon. He along with his workers had completed their day's work on the ceiling of a dentist's office in St James and had stopped to buy food at a stall outside the bar, she was told.
Within 15 minutes her phone rang again.
"His co-worker called back, saying he get shoot and then I heard the woman from the bar saying if I wanted to see him alive again, I should hurry to the hospital, because he not looking like he going to hold up," Lauren said, adding that she had not and did not know how to tell the couple's two daughters, Abbi and Ariel.
"I want them to get life and suffer. Like I going to suffer for the rest of my life with my two children. For a gold chain," said the woman about her husband's attackers. She said her husband was accustomed to wearing his chain everywhere, but stated in case of robbery he would have been willing to give up his belongings.
"He would always put family first, he would say...He wanted me to continue the business. He said 'If anything happened to me make sure that you continue this business, I worked too hard for it'." she said. She said her husband started his company with $200 and a rental car eight years ago.
His sister, Jamie Dwarika said: "He has been doing this job for more than six years. My brother was an ambitious person who liked nice things. He was well-known for his professionalism and worked hard to care for his family," she said.
A short distance away, at Jonas' home yesterday, relatives were trying to determine why two masked men would storm into a bar and begin shooting. Jonas lived at Ramsamooj Trace, Debe.
His sister, Mohani Manick, said her brother began working with the contractor three weeks ago. "He was excited to have a job and had already started planning to build his house. He has a girlfriend and wanted to get married," she said. Homicide detectives are continuing investigations.
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