Teen shot, teacher critical as gunmen go on rampage

Three shootings in La Romaine on Tuesday night, including the wounding of a teenage girl from Morvant, have left residents terrified and pleading for frequent police patrols in the area. After the night’s terror, which also left a 37-year-old schoolteacher fighting for her life, residents are afraid to walk the streets as they said drug and gang warfare have taken over their community.

In the first incident, around 8.30 pm, 16-year-old Alexia Noriega of Building Four, Apartment Two, Poinsettia Drive, Morvant, had just arrived at a friend’s home at George Street, when she heard someone knocking at the door. Police said when she responded, a man asked for a person unknown to her and she replied she did not know who that was and closed the door. The man knocked again but this time when Noriega answered she was shot once in the right thigh.

The suspect then ran off and the teenager was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery and was warded in a stable condition. Police believe the suspect joined an accomplice around 10 pm and they went to Duncan Village, where they stole a silver Nissan Nivara pickup from Elijah Green.

Half-an-hour later, the suspects, wearing caps on their heads and bandanas over their faces, pulled up at Nana’s Place, Pond Road, where they shot proprietor Dwayne Boucaud in the left side of the face before retreating back to their stolen pickup. Boucaud, 24, was taken to hospital where he remained warded in a serious condition.

Around 11 pm, 32-year-old salesman Navindra Maharaj, of Pundit Street, Hermitage Village, was sitting in his Toyota Crown car along the Southern Main Road, La Romaine. He was with a friend, Carol Asgarali, a 37-year-old schoolteacher from Sinanan Drive, Vistabella. While chatting, they saw the suspects getting out of a vehicle with bandanas over their faces and guns in their hands. 

Maharaj drove off, only to realise Asgarali had been shot in the head and was bleeding from the mouth. She was taken to hospital where she remained in a critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit up to late yesterday.