“You shoot me or I shoot you” That was the ultimatum Sgt Dhanraj Narine says he was given, before he pulled out his personal gun and shot his father-in-law Krishna Rajkumar dead on Monday night. Narine, an officer with 31 years’ service, told the T&T Guardian yesterday that despite being terrorised by Rajkumar for the past two and a half years, he never confronted the man nor fought with him.
Rajkumar, 54, died after being shot twice in the chest by Narine at his Savannah Drive, Korea Village, Carapichaima, home. “He was always cursing me and calling me a coward, but I always preferred the coward’s route than for someone to lose their life,” said Narine. “If I had known he was outside that night, I would have stayed inside.”
The father of three said the only reason he went outside was to flag down officers from the Freeport Police Station, whom he had contacted for help when Rajkumar began abusing his family late on Monday night. “I called the station and the officers said they did not know the house and they asked me to walk outside and signal to them when I saw the vehicle. I was shocked to see him standing between the cars, just waiting.”
Narine said Rajkumar told him they were going to have a gunfight and then he (Rajkumar) would kill Narine’s wife and children. “He had his left hand in his pocket and he said ‘Tonight yuh dead, I go shoot yuh.’ I thought he had a gun, I didn’t see the cutlass in his right hand until he tried to chop me. He was walking up to me, holding the cutlass against his leg and making a show of his left hand. When he fired the first chop it was aimed at my stomach and I had to jump back, ending up against a wall.”
Narine said the decision to shoot was made in a split second and the gun he used was the same he was given after making repeated reports against Rajkumar for threatening his life. “I told him ‘Stop, stop, stop,’ but he kept coming. I had no choice but to fire at him. And to those who saying all over social media that I could have shot him in hands or legs, it was seconds between his death or mine, I did what I had to do to preserve my life.”
Narine said Rajkumar, who had been in and out of prison his entire life, cursed and abused the entire family whenever he was ‘high.’ “He used marijuana, cocaine, and he was an alcoholic. He has been behaving like this for many years. He always threatened that he would kill anyone who get him lock up.”
Asked why he did not take his family away from the situation, Narine explained, “He asked us to come stay with him after my mother-in-law passed away and I spent over $350,000 rebuilding and adding sections to the house. I simply could not afford to rent or build anywhere else and take care of my wife and children.”
Narine said the money came from the sale of his first home after his divorce and he used some of it to rebuild Rajkumar’s home as well. “I built my own section, then he started to say our side looking better. I paid him to rebuild his own house. I buy all the material and paid him to construct it. I put electricity and tiles and everything in that house for them to be comfortable.” He added that reports in the media that his wife and Rajkumar had an ongoing land matter before the courts were totally untrue.
“My wife had him in court for abuse. All we wanted was to live in peace but he did not want that. I think he got it in his head that he could rent out our section if we left. I told him to pay me for it but he refused.” Despite everything, Narine said, he and his brothers-in-law would foot the expenses for the funeral which takes place tomorrow.
He maintains he does not want Rajkumar’s land, saying the family has already come together and decided that Rajkumar’s only son should inherit his property. “He had one son, he is entitled to inherit his father’s property and I will help in any way I can to see my brother-in-law gets what is rightfully his.”