Camille Clarke

Three peo­ple were mur­dered and five se­ri­ous­ly wound­ed be­tween Sat­ur­day night and yes­ter­day in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in Laven­tille and Biche. The mur­der toll stood at 173 up to late yes­ter­day. Those killed were:

• Cousins Lenroy John, 19, of Trou Macaque Road, and Veron­i­ca John, 19, of Man­go Al­ley; and

• Niles Jones, 22, of Charu­ma Vil­lage, Biche.

Those wound­ed are:

• Dar­ren Mor­gan, 22, and Jane Maf­fey, 21, of Man­go Al­ley;

• Ju­nior Joseph, 19, of Thoma­sine Street, Laven­tille;

• Al­fred John­son, 67, of Dun­don­ald Street, Port-of-Spain; and

• Au­drey Fred­er­icks, 66, of O'Brien Place, East Dry Riv­er, Port-of Spain.

A re­port said around 5.50 pm on Sat­ur­day, Lenroy John was lim­ing with his friends Mor­gan and Maf­fey at Man­go Al­ley when a black car drove up and the oc­cu­pants came out of the ve­hi­cle and opened fire on them. They were shot mul­ti­ple times about their bod­ies. The gun­men then fled the scene in the wait­ing ve­hi­cle.

The in­jured were tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where John suc­cumbed to his in­juries. Up to late yes­ter­day evening, Mor­gan re­mained ward­ed at the In­ten­sive Care Unit, while Maf­fey was be­ing treat­ed for her in­juries. In the sec­ond in­ci­dent, Veron­i­ca John and Joseph were at their house at Thoma­sine Street around 1 am when a lone gun­man en­tered the premis­es, af­ter which sev­er­al loud ex­plo­sions were heard.

John died on the spot. Res­i­dents who heard the noise im­me­di­ate­ly no­ti­fied the po­lice. Joseph was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal where he re­mains ward­ed. Mean­while, po­lice said they were at­tempt­ing to find a mo­tive for the fa­tal shoot­ing of Jones. A re­port said around 7.05 pm, Jones left his premis­es to use an out­house when a loud ex­plo­sion was heard. He man­aged to run to his house and told his com­mon-law wife that he was shot.

Jones lat­er col­lapsed and was tak­en to the house of an­oth­er rel­a­tive who drove him to the San­gre Grande Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal. He was, how­ev­er, pro­nounced dead on ar­rival, in­ves­ti­ga­tors said. Act­ing Cpl Dun­can, of the Biche Po­lice Sta­tion, is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Al­so around 9 pm, John­son and Fred­er­icks were walk­ing on Nel­son Street, Port-of-Spain, when res­i­dents heard loud ex­plo­sions. John­son and Fred­er­icks were both shot in their an­kles. They were tak­en to the hos­pi­tal. Homi­cide of­fi­cers and Besson Street po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.