By Darcel Choy Sunday, September 27 2009

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The families and friends of Damien Pounnette and Hakeem Vickles stand outside La Cabana Bar along Eccles Street, Curepe yesterday. ...

The families of two of the five men who were gunned down on September 13 while liming at La Cabana Bar along Eccles Street, Curepe came together yesterday in a walk against crime and violence in the Curepe area and the country.

A small gathering wearing blue and white representing Damien Pounnette, 24, and Hakeem Vickles, 17, assembled at Scherzando’s pan yard before walking through the streets of the area.

Maylin Peters, a representative of the Scherzando’s sports community who organised the walk said that they were very hurt when they found out what happened in their own backyard.

“Things like this never happened here before and now it has really hit close to home,” she said.

Peters hopes that the walk would bring the awareness that violence is real and that it could happen anywhere.

“We never had it here before and it is here now and we want to do something about it,” she said.

She describes the current crime situation as horrendous and believes that no government can solve crime.

“What they could do is try to curb it, I believe that everyone should be involved in helping in some way. Parents, teachers, everybody should work together to find the solution but it should definitely start at home. Some people see their child being abusive and aggressive at a very young age and they just ignore it, they have to stop that behaviour before it gets out of hand,” she explained.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday was the sister of Pounnette, who said that the walk was a very good idea and she was glad that it was put together.

“It gives us a voice for us to show that these deaths were not gang related, this was innocent blood that was shed. There are no gangs in Curepe, the crime situation is terrible they killing all the good people and leaving the wicked people to roam the Earth,”she said.