Two men held after the murder of 21-year-old Afisha Dyer have been set free, police said yesterday.Around 2 am on Saturday, the Moruga mother of three was shot several times at her Samuel Cooper Trace, St Mary's home, by three gunmen who emerged from an unmarked black Nissan Wingroad.Hours after the killing, two men from South Oropouche and La Brea were arrested while driving through Barrackpore.
Homicide detectives said the men were held because their vehicle matched the type and colour of the car which Dyer's killers used. However, police said they could not establish a link between the suspects and the murder and the men were set free on Sunday.Although relatives believe Dyer was killed because of an ongoing court battle over her one-year-old son, Ezekiel, police said no one has provided adequate information to determine whether that was a strong motive for the killing.
No one else has been held in connection with the case but police said yesterday they were working towards gathering more information to make an arrest.The killing occurred less than two weeks before Christmas, which leaves Dyer's children motherless and in the care of relatives.It took place as Dyer and other friends were playing a game of all fours under her home. The men approached the group and fired several times and as the players ran for safety, they shot Dyer several times, even as she pleaded for her life.
Her 33-year-old neighbour Nikeisha Elliot was also shot four times in the shoulder and chest.They were taken to the Princes Town District Health Facility where Dyer died while receiving emergency treatment.Up to yesterday, Elliot, the mother of three teenagers and a toddler, remained warded in a stable condition at the San Fernando General Hospital.The murder toll for 2013 stood at 380 yesterday, surpassing last year's total of 379 recorded on the T&T Police Service Web site.
No suspects in cemetery killings
Despite reports that three men were held for the murder of two people at the Chaguanas cemetery last week, Central Division Police said yesterday they have no suspects in custody for those killings.Last Wednesday, gunmen opened fire on a red Nissan Almera, causing it to crash into a tombstone at the cemetery along the Petersfield Main Road.The men then bludgeoned 23-year-old Salisha Langtoo with a car jack and shot 39-year-old Clifford George four times in the chest.
Langtoo, of Jennifer Street, Lisas Gardens, Couva, and George, of Carolina Village, Couva, died while being treated at the Chaguanas Health Centre. Two other people, 31-year-old Kwesi Brooks, also of Lisas Gardens, and Carlene Thomas, 33, of East Dry River, Port-of-Spain, were taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, and the Port-of-Spain General Hospital respectively.
While processing the scene, police responded to a report that three men were seen robbing a supermarket in Chaguanas.Reports indicated that the suspects might have been related to the murder but a senior officer said yesterday that the men had nothing to do with the murder and had appeared in court last week on larceny charges.