Homicide officers are trying to determine whether Wednesday's double murder in Chaguanas was a hit over a bogus cheque linked to the sale of a car.Police yesterday confirmed that this was one of the theories being explored in the murders of 23-year-old Salisha Langtoo and 39-year-old Clifford George, and the shooting and chopping of 33-year-old Kwesi Brooks and 31-year-old Carlene Thomas.
Up to yesterday Brooks, a security guard at PPL Security Services, remained warded in a serious condition at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, while Thomas, of East Dry River, Port-of-Spain, was in a critical condition at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.Speaking at their Lisas Gardens home yesterday, Brook's cousin Timothy Clarke said all four victims were shot while going to a location in central Trinidad where Brooks was supposed to collect money for the sale of his Mazda 323.
"I heard he went to sell the car and he got a bounced cheque, so he carried it back and he collected $10,000 cash in hand."They told him to come and meet them somewhere to get the rest and they were on their way there when the gunmen start shooting at them."I feel it was a robbery linked to the car," Clarke said.Police who processed the crime scene at the Chaguanas Cemetery on Petersfield Main Road, St Thomas Village, said they did not find any money at the scene and believe it may have been stolen.
Meanwhile, three men held in connection with the murders were transferred to Gasparillo Police Station, where they are also being investigated for other recent offences. They are expected to be charged soon.Linking the quartet together, Clarke said George was a part-time taxi driver whom Brooks hired to take himself and Langtoo to get the money. He said George and Thomas were close friends.
Asked if there were any other reasons why someone would have targeted his cousin, he said: "Not really, he was not in any crime and he is a working fella. He was never on any stupidness. He is originally from Tobago, but because he got a work here, he stays with us."On the other side of Lisas Gardens, Langtoo's relatives were preparing for her funeral, which takes place today.Her grieving mother Farisha Mohammed said her daughter's death happened because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Langtoo, who worked with Brooks, was bludgeoned to death with a car jack, causing skull fractures and brain damage. Because of this, Mohammed said she felt her daughter fought with her killers.She said her daughter and Brooks were liming at Grand Bazaar during the day after Brooks sold the car."I said be careful and go ahead, because you have to go to work. She said, 'Yes, Mommy, I hear you, I love you.' I kept calling her because I felt something was going to happen, I was getting signs," Mohammed said.
She said she supported the reintroduction of capital punishment to deter criminals from taking lives.