Slain security guard’s widow: He put others first

Black Immigrant Daily News

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The common-law wife of murdered security guard Jeffrey Andy Peters remembers her husband as a doting family man who juggled his jobs as a security guard and a TT Rideshare taxi driver to provide for his loved ones.

Peters, 51, and another guard, Jerry Winston Stuart, 49, were shot dead by bandits while transporting cash outside the Pennywise Super Centre in La Romaine on Monday afternoon.

A 57-year-old security guard was also wounded in the attack and was in hospital up to Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking with Newsday at the family’s Granado Street, Morvant, home on Tuesday, Peters’s common-law wife Amanda LaVende said she remembered her husband as a devoted family man who remained optimistic in the face of all difficulties.

She said she and Peters had been together for the past eight years.

She also worked for Allied Security Services Ltd, the same company as her husband, as a duty manager at one of its offices, but resigned to care better for their one-year-old daughter Jaley.

LaVende said Peters worked as a security guard for the past eight years and always put the well-being of others first.

Recalling a recent conversation with him on the dangers of being a security guard, LaVende said Peters served on the branch board of the Allied Security Services Ltd branch of the Estate Police Association. In this role he would meet with officers on concerns or grievances they had, and felt it necessary to stay for their sake.

“We had a talk recently about if he was considering doing something else. It was just something on my mind.

“He is part of the branch board for Allied (Security) – he was the chairman – and his response was, he just wanted to make life easier for the officers before he did anything else, before he left. He was thinking of the well-being of the officers as well.”

As a former employee of the company, LaVende said she knew all the security guards involved in the shooting personally, and was outraged after hearing about the incident.

She hopes more could be done in not only rooting out criminals but also corrupt elements in society as she questioned how the bandits were able to access high-powered weapons.

“There’s no way these young boys can have access to assault rifles. There must be someone higher up giving it to them. So (if) that changes, then we may see a change in crime.”

LaVende says representatives from Allied Security Services had contacted her to send their condolences to her family and discuss funeral arrangements since Peters’s death.

His body was taken to the Forensic Science Centre, St James, for storage on Tuesday and will remain until it can be identified on Wednesday.

Police from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region III are continuing enquiries.

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