Rhon­dor Dowlat

Five years ago there was an at­tempt­ed mur­der on Mark John's life but the death threats con­tin­ued and days be­fore he was killed, John, 27, of St James, gave three names of his en­e­mies to sev­er­al peo­ple, in­clud­ing a se­nior war­rant of­fi­cer, from the area.

Around 5.30 am yes­ter­day a man on his way to work found John's body along a track at Bourne's Road. He had been shot sev­er­al times.

Po­lice said res­i­dents re­port­ed hear­ing sev­er­al gun­shots around 11 pm Mon­day but no one went out­side to in­ves­ti­gate.

Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, a close friend, who did not to be iden­ti­fied, said John sur­vived a hit on his life five years ago.

"He was shot in the but­tocks in that at­tempt. He was lucky to sur­vive then but it is sad to see that he did not sur­vive this time," John's friend said.

John was de­port­ed from the US af­ter sev­er­al years but both his par­ents still live in the US and were said to be va­ca­tion­ing in St Kitts.

John, al­so known as Ki­mani Cy­at, was de­scribed as a "no non­sense kind of guy" and was known for de­fend­ing him­self and oth­ers from the al­leged trou­ble­mak­ers in the area. It is be­lieved he was not liked and was killed be­cause of a "turf war."

"He used to lime around with the fel­las but he was not in noth­ing with no­body and the fel­las and them used to threat­en him be­cause of 'turf war', but he was not in any­thing wrong.

"He was strong­ly built and was known as a fight­er to all those who came around him with stu­pid­ness, so they had to get to him with a gun, noth­ing else," John's friend said.

When the threats against his life in­ten­si­fied, John con­fid­ed in friends and fam­i­ly mem­bers and gave the names of three in­di­vid­u­als re­spon­si­ble.

"This is so chill­ing and scary but true talk," John's friend added.

John's body was re­moved to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St james, for an au­top­sy.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.