Two killings in north Trinidad on Thursday night have pushed the murder toll to 31 for the year. For the same period last year the figure stood at 23.Clevon Manswell, of Hermitage Road, Belmont, was shot several times after he stepped out of a car on Belmont Valley Road, Belmont. Police said a man got out of a vehicle, opened fire on Manswell, jumped back into the waiting vehicle and sped off.Manswell was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and died while undergoing surgery.
At the Forensic Science Centre yesterday one of Manswell's relative, who did not want to be identified, said his family could not understand why the 27-year-old was killed, as he was a hard-working man who had recently got married.
The relative said Manswell might have been killed for being with the wrong company. "I don't know if they meant to go after his friend or what. People does take you down roads you not supposed to go, and that's why you supposed to watch the company you keep. But you see (him), he was a hard-working man and was working hard, doing everything right in this life to make sure that his family was provided for" the relative said.About an hour later, Homicide detectives were investigating another murder, this time in La Horquetta.
Dion Mitchell, 27, of Phase Seven, La Horquetta, was last seen liming in the gallery of Everil Gibbs at Toni Goviah Avenue, when neighbours heard gunshots and found both Gibbs and Mitchell lying in the road.The two men were taken to the Arima District Health Facility where Mitchell, who had been shot several times, died.Gibbs, who was shot in the chest, was transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. He remained warded in a critical condition late yesterday.
Speaking to the media at the Forensic Science Centre, Mitchell's relative described the father of two as kind and loving and a man with no enemies. He was also a cook at Popeye's in Grand Bazaar."He was an ambitious man and was on leave because he got injured on the job, but he used to work hard to provide for his family, especially his children," said Mitchell's sister, who did not want to be identified by name.
"Right now the family in a state of shock because we don't understand why Dion was killed. And what makes it worse, the day he died was his mother's birthday, and he was 'the apple of her eye'."Mitchell was killed the day after 19-year-old Jabari Thompson was also gunned down in La Horquetta. Police believe that there is an ongoing war in the area.