Mom, 50, among 9 slain over weekend

A 50-year-old mother of nine and a 21-year-old Laventille man were killed in north Trinidad on Sunday night, bringing the number of people murdered over the weekend to nine. 

The spate of murders across the country, which occurred between midnight on Saturday to midnight Sunday, pushed the murder toll for the year to 16. 

The toll for the corresponding period last year was 20 while for 2012 the total amount of murders was 377, according to statistics from the Crime and Problem Analysis Branch (CAPA) of the T&T Police Service. 

In the first incident on Sunday night, Cheryl Lorna Adams, of Sundarsingh Drive, Aranguez, was found chopped to death at her home. 

According to reports, around 9.15 pm, Adams’ daughter went to her mother’s home, where she found her lying in her living room in a pool of blood. She had been chopped about the body.

Police, led by Supt John Daniel and Insp Ali, responded and Adams was pronounced dead on the scene by a District Medical Officer (DMO). 

Investigators said she had more than a dozen chop wounds, including to her hands and forearms, which indicate she resisted her attacker.

Although Adams’ home initially looked as though it had been ransacked, police said they did not believe robbery was the motive. They were searching yesterday for a 20-year-old San Juan man, who they said had recently begun a relationship with her. 

Within hours of the chopping, 21-year-old Micah Ramkisson was shot dead near his Village Council Street, Laventille, home in a gang-related killing. 

According to police reports, residents reported hearing a volley of gunshots around 11.40 pm. They later found Ramkisson lying in the middle of the road suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and head. He died on the scene. 

Residents told police because of poor lighting in the area they did not see Ramkisson’s attacker, who is believed to have run off through a nearby track. 

Ramkisson was well known to police. They believe his murder was the result of an ongoing gang feud between rival criminal syndicates in the neighbouring communities. 

ASP Ajith Persad and Insps Sahadeo Singh and Maharaj of the Port-of-Spain CID are probing the murder. 

In another incident in Couva, Eugene Brown, 33, the son of a Baptist bishop, was shot dead by armed bandits as he was playing cards with friends on Sunday. 

Brown, a father of two, was shot about three times by his attackers, who shot him after he resisted as they tried to rob he and his three friends as they played cards at a house at Grant Trace Extension, Calcutta No 3. 

Brown was the son of Archbishop Patrick Brown of the St  Ann’s Church of Spiritual Metaphysics.

At his McBean Extension home, Brown’s common-law wife, Kia Hodge, 24, with whom he had a four-month-old daughter and a one-and-a-half-year-old son, said the last time she saw Brown was around 4.30 pm on Sunday, when he told her he was “going down the road.”

Brown’s cousin, who requested anonymity, said his death was a reflection of what was happening in the country. 

Describing him as a loving husband and father, she said: “People like to judge by looks. In this case what you see is not what you get. He was a genuinely good person.”

Snr Supt Deodath Dulalchan and officers from Couva and Central Division Task Force visited the scene. 

Cpl Raday Kissoon is continuing investigations. 

In Tobago, Adrian Alfred, 27, of Bethel, became the island’s first murder for the year after he was gunned down at Cocrico Avenue, Buccoo. 

Another man, Jamoke Duncan, 30, remained warded at the Scarborough General Hospital under police guard last evening after he too was shot in the same attack.

Police said around 3.50 am yesterday, an off-duty police officer heard several gunshots near his Buccoo home and contacted the Old Grange Police Station. 

When officers arrived on the scene they found Alfred’s body along the roadway with gunshot wounds to his back, leg and arm. Duncan was found in some bushes bleeding from wounds to his buttocks. 

Murdered over the weekend

• Marvin Harewood, 31, of Riverside Drive, La Puerta, Diego Martin, shot dead outside his home at 2.30 am on Saturday
• Kerron Dickereau, of Malabar Extension, Arima, and Mark Joseph, 23, of Mahogany Drive, Malabar, Arima, shot dead on Trainline Road, Arima, at 5 am on Saturday. 
• Kelvin Brown, of Third Street, Beetham Gardens, shot dead near his home around 3.15 pm on Saturday. 
• Unidentified man shot dead at Eastern Quarry, Laventille, around 3.30 am on Sunday.
• Eugene Brown, 33, shot dead in Couva at 5 pm on Sunday.  
• Cheryl Adams, of Sundarsingh Drive, Aranguez, found chopped to death at home around 9.15 pm on Sunday. 
• Micah Ramkisson, of Village Council Street, Laventille, shot dead near his home around 11.40 pm on Sunday. 
• Adrian Alfred, 27, of Bethel, Tobago, found shot dead in Buccoo, around 4 am yesterday.