Was 60 Year Old Alexander Trapp Murdered for Picking Mangoes?

Hilberto Rolando Perez

Four persons lost their lives over the weekend. We start with the story of an elderly man from Ladyville, who was shot in his chest and perished over mangoes, which he did not even get to enjoy. Police are treating it as a case of manslaughter and not murder. Today, a well-known resident was charged; he is forty-seven year old Hilberto Rolando Perez, of Perez Road, the owner of the yard where sixty year old Alexander Trapp was seen picking mangoes. Trapp, who frequents the village walking and picking up bottles and pieces of iron, is also known to battle substance abuse. But despite his addiction, the family says he was harmless and his death was unwarranted. Andrea Polanco reports. 

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Killed because he was picking a couple mangoes? That’s the question that the family of sixty year old Daniel Trapp is asking. Around nine on Saturday morning, Trapp was walking on Perez Road when he stopped by this yard, owned by a family friend, to pick mangoes. But he never had the chance to eat the fruits because he was fatally shot.

Alicia Trapp, Sister of the deceased

“My bredda know who shoot ah. What is unexpected is who shoot ah because deh dah people we know wi whole life. Yuh understand? My bredda come round Ladyville since he twelve and my nephew live inna deh people yaad, deh house with deh. Suh, I nuh think Danny mi feel like deh mi wah shot ah.”

Andrea Polanco

“Ms Alice, talk to us about the circumstances surrounding the shooting; your brother’s death. Talk to us about what you know happened that led to his death?”

Alexander Trapp

Alicia Trapp

“My brother left my house the morning and like twenty minutes later I hear that he got shot. Deh say he mi di pull mango or pick up mango under the tree. I nuh think somebody supposed to get shot fi that. Ih nuh require a man fi shoot ah. If Danny mi deh eena the yaad deh could ah mi tell ah that ah wah lash you or flog you with something come outta mi yard. Danny mi wah pick up ih bag and ih mi gwein. Deh chance the poor man. Deh chance a poor, old sixty year old man; a frail and fragile man. Deh shouldn’t ah do that.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, he was killed for mangoes you’d say?”

Alicia Trapp

“That’s what I hear. I was made to understand that Danny was killed because ih mi di pick up mangoes. Miss ah got mango tree. Mango di drop dah mi yaad. Mango deh pan ground and mosquito di breed pahn deh. Fuh mango you kill somebody?”

Andrea Polanco

“So, he wouldn’t be stealing mangoes? I mean, he wouldn’t be trespassing you’d say?”

Alicia Trapp

“I nuh even feel like my bredda mi di, if my bredda mi di pick up mango in front ah the yard I nuh feel like my bredda mi feel like he mi di trespass. Deh dah people weh deh know. My nephew live inna deh people house. Nuh eena deh yard, eena deh house.”

But the Ladyville senior citizen didn’t die immediately. He was clinging to life when he was discovered here on this feeder road across from the yard where he was shot. His cries for help caught the attention of some passersby.

Voice of: Passerby

“While I di continue walk by the house up more, I tell my friend, gyal you si dah man through the road up deh suh? She say, ‘dah shot the man get shot yuh know gial. I say fi true. ‘So, me and my sista turn back and I call my next sista yah from my ma because dah nuh far. I tell ah gial the man get shot. So when she gone and ask the man dah weh happen to you, the man say, “ah get shot.” And she says who shot you? And he call the person name who shot ah. So, she gone and talk to ih common-law but he neva come out but the sister-in-law say that the man mi deh eena deh yaad di get mango and she di chase the man from outta deh yard but the man neva come out. The man come up more to the front and the climb the next tree and I guess that dah when he get shot.”

But Alice Trapp says she has no clear idea of what exactly transpired in the yard. But whether her brother was asked to leave or not, she says the shooting was unjustified.

Alicia Trapp

Alicia Trapp

“I really want to know weh gone on. At least one person must see what happen to mi bredda dah maaning.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, you’d say that even if he was taking mangoes from the tree, excessive force was used?”

Alicia Trapp

“Definitely. Most definitely. People nuh shoot people fi mango.”

Andrea Polanco

“Now from what I understand he was shot to the chest area?”

Alicia Trapp

“Over the nipple. Direct to the nipple. Over the left side of the chest – that dah heart. They aim fi mi bredda heart and shot ah deh dah murderer. Deh kill mi bredda.”

Andrea Polanco

“As his sister, you’d think why not perhaps shoot him in his foot?”

Alicia Trapp

“If they had to use that kinda a force that dah the part why deh nuh shoot the man dah ih foot.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, his death was not justified to the family?”

Alicia Trapp

“Why deh nuh call the police? Call the police. This lee mawga old man deh eena mi yard di thief mi mango come arrest the man. No shoot the man.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, there wasn’t an old issue between the two- a past problem or so that may have…?”

Alicia Trapp

“Not that I know of.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Andrea Polanco.