Derek Achong

A Mor­vant man is ward­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion at hos­pi­tal af­ter be­ing kid­napped, shot and left for dead in San­ta Cruz on Mon­day night.Po­lice say that around 7.30 pm, Wayne Mor­rell, 21, of Red Hill Ex­ten­sion, Mor­vant, was lim­ing with friends on Laven­tille Road, when a car pulled up and three oc­cu­pants bun­dled him in­to the ve­hi­cle and sped off.Re­ports in­di­cate Mor­rell was tak­en to the se­clud­ed San­ta Bar­bara area of San­ta Cruz where he was beat­en and shot three times in the back, and then left ly­ing un­con­scious. Up­on hear­ing the gun­shots, res­i­dents con­tact­ed au­thor­i­ties, mount­ed a search of the area and even­tu­al­ly found Mor­rell.He was tak­en by res­i­dents to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he is said to be in com­fort­able con­di­tion af­ter un­der­go­ing emer­gency surgery.Po­lice say Mor­rell is well known to them and be­lieve that the at­tack may be gang-re­lat­ed.

San­ta Cruz CID are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions. Mean­while, a shoot­ing in Ari­ma has left a 25-year-old man hos­pi­tal­ized in crit­i­cal con­di­tion.Po­lice say Ash­ley Khan, of Mal­abar Branch Road, Ari­ma, was stand­ing at the cor­ner of Ak­bar­ali Street and Mal­abar Main Road at around 9.40 pm on Mon­day when he was ap­proached by two as­sailants who are said to be known to him.Po­lice say one of the men drew a firearm and shot Khan sev­er­al times in his up­per body.Of­fi­cers at the Mal­abar Po­lice Post and Ari­ma CID are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.