A Penal father who attempted to protect his friend from gunmen who were hunting him by hiding the man at his home was himself gunned down yesterday. Although Nigel Cornwall, 34, was charged for robbery back in 2008, police said, he had kept himself out of trouble since then.
Police said he was harbouring the 28- year-old Arima man suspected of being involved in criminal activities. They said the man had a dispute with known criminals in Penal and had been in hiding ever since as a hit was taken on his life. Police said around 1.20 am, Cornwall was asleep at his Lowkie Trace home with his common-law-wife, Miranda Mohammed, 26, and their son, Junior Cornwall, five, when he was awoken by someone knocking on his back door.
As he opened the door, Cornwall was shot several times in his chest and abdomen. Police believe the shooter came looking for the Arima man who was not at the house. When Mohammed awoke and went to the back door, she found him lying faced down in the yard. Cornwall, a mason, died within minutes.
Penal Police responded and searched the area for the suspect but no one was found. A relative told the T&T Guardian yesterday Cornwall’s murder was a shock to the community as he was well known and liked by everyone. She said although her family lived in the same neighbourhood, they did not know he was harbouring a friend at his home. She said relatives were yet to get the full story as Mohammed had been assisting police with enquiries all day.
“There was nothing that we knew of that would have gotten him killed because we knew him to be a fun-loving, family type of person. He was always friendly, so to say he had a mishap with someone, we don’t know. “He got along well with everybody. Almost everybody in Lowkie Trace was outside when he got shot because nobody believed that had happened to him.
“They knew him as a loving, friendly person and they are still in shock because they cannot believe that this could have happened to him. Just so out of the blue this just came along,” the relative said. His killing has taken the murder toll to 390 for the year.