Camille Clarke

Po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to two more mur­ders-in Ari­ma and Laven­tille.The lat­est vic­tims are Fos­ter Ben­i­to, 34, a CEPEP work­er and a fa­ther of six, of Right­eous Lane, Ari­ma, and Christo­pher Welch, 18, of Point Plai­sance Park, Laven­tille.Ben­i­to was shot dead at King­dom Street, Ari­ma, while Welch was shot at Laven­tille Road, Laven­tille.Their deaths have pushed the mur­der toll to 163, com­pared to 219 for the cor­re­spond­ing pe­ri­od last year.A re­port stat­ed that Ben­i­to and an­oth­er man, Nigel Nicholas, 39, were at a house at Ma­tu­ri­ta Vil­lage around 8 pm on Mon­day when loud ex­plo­sions were heard.Po­lice re­spond­ed and found Ben­i­to suf­fer­ing from gun­shot wounds to the head and Nicholas with gun­shot wounds about the body.Ben­i­to died on the spot, while up to late yes­ter­day evening, Nicholas re­mained ward­ed at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope.

In an in­ter­view at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre yes­ter­day, Ben­i­to's aunt, Celia McIn­niss, said she did not know why he was killed."He dropped off two of his chil­dren and was on his way home...I don't know what hap­pened or whose house that was or the oth­er per­son that was shot. We heard that he was shot and the next ten min­utes he was dead," McIn­niss said.She de­scribed Ben­i­to as a "per­son who al­ways lis­tened and a per­son who liked to lime with friends."In the sec­ond in­ci­dent, po­lice said that around 11.30 pm Mon­day, Welch was in a ve­hi­cle with some friends when a gun­man fired shots at the car on Laven­tille Road.Welch died while un­der­go­ing treat­ment at Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Po­lice said they had no mo­tive for his killing.Welch's fam­i­ly re­fused to com­ment.Homi­cide of­fi­cers are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.