Kevon Matiste, whose father died on May 10, eight months after he was shot, is urging people to talk things out instead of picking up a gun.

Lindsay Matiste, 59, was called out of his home on September 6, 2023, and shot at close range.

He had surgery at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) for gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

He was discharged, but was in and out of the hospital after that, as his injuries left him bedridden.

Police are believed to have identified a person of interest, as Matiste was able to tell them who had shot him.

Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Kevon Matiste said his father died because he chose to intervene in a family feud and quell the dispute.

“Two of his relatives had a falling-out and he tried to be the peacemaker. He got in the middle of the feud.”

Matiste said his father, a taxi driver and gardener, was left paralysed from the waist down and unable to continue working.

Lindsay Matiste’s common-law wife Kellyann Yard remembered him as a generous, God-fearing man.

“He loved celebrating birthdays and Christmas. He loved to share and was always helping people. He was a praying person, too.”

Matiste urged people to resolve situations by dialogue instead of violence.

“Nobody don't want to be the smaller person. Everybody want to be the bigger person and prove a point, when things could be resolved, just like how we doing here and conversing.

“If people put aside ignorance, a lot of situations can be resolved. It's simple things people could talk but it turns into these things instead.”

Yard added, “Now a four-year-old is without her father and crying every day. What are we going to tell her?”

Although Lindsay Matiste’s killer has not yet been held, eight months after the shooting, Yard and Matiste said they are “leaving everything to God.”

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