Derek Achong

A mid-af­ter­noon shoot­ing out­side the Diego Mar­tin North Sec­ondary School yes­ter­day has left a par­ent dead and his son, a Form Three stu­dent at the school, in crit­i­cal con­di­tion.Po­lice say short­ly af­ter 2 pm yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, Dex­ter "Sug­ars" Gillard, 40, of La Puer­ta Av­enue, Diego Mar­tin, was parked out­side the school's St Lu­cien Road com­pound wait­ing to pick up his 14-year-old son.Up­on the stu­dent's en­try in the car, they were ap­proached by two men who opened fire on the ve­hi­cle hit­ting the fa­ther and son sev­er­al times in the process.Po­lice say the as­sailants then es­caped on foot.

They were rushed to the St James Med­ical Com­plex and then trans­ferred to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where Gillard was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival. His son re­mains ward­ed af­ter un­der­go­ing emer­gency surgery.Po­lice sources say Gillard was a leader of sev­er­al gangs in the area and al­so a mem­ber of a re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tion.Po­lice say no mo­tive has yet been es­tab­lished for the shoot­ing.In­spec­tor Hen­ry Dan, Port-of-Spain Homi­cide de­tec­tives and West­ern CID are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.