A former Coast Guard officer and a teenage girl were among three people slain between Tuesday night and yesterday, taking the murder toll to 321 for the year as murders continued a nationwide killing spree.
The three killings took the number of people killed since the September 7 general election to 30.
In the first incident, former Coast Guardsman Kwesi Young was hog tied, killed and stuffed in the trunk of a car on Tuesday night while his friend was left for dead outside the car.
According to police reports Young, 27, of Robert Street, Woodbrook, was found in the trunk of a silver Axio Corolla around 10.20 pm with gunshot wounds to his head and chest. His friend, Richard White, of East Dry River, Port-of-Spain, was found with his hands bound behind his back with a tie strap. He had been shot in his neck and face.
Police said Cpl Manbode and PC Dharoo were on routine patrol in the Caroni district when they saw a car parked just off the west-bound lane of the Southern Main Road, Caroni, near La Paille Gardens.
The officers said they saw White at the back of the car making strange movements with his right leg. Inside the trunk they found Young.
White was taken to the Eric Williams Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, where he underwent emergency surgery and was listed in stable condition yesterday.
According to sources in the Coast Guard, Young, who had joined the service in 2008, was dishonourably discharged in 2012 for conduct unbecoming of an officer.
At the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday Young's relatives declined to speak to the media.
In the other incident, Tobago recorded its third murder in two weeks after 17-year-old Shanese Roberts, of Fort Street, Scarborough, was shot to death at a Mt St George guest house around 7.30 pm Tuesday.
The business, located approximately 50 metres off the Windward Road, is owned by Donna Malchan.
According to police, Roberts went to the guest house with a male companion but on entering the premises they were confronted by a gunman who shot her.
Neighbours said they heard screams followed by three gunshots and on checking they found her dead in one of the apartments. She had been shot three times in the chest. Her 19-year-old male companion ran for help nearby but was unhurt. Eyewitnesses said the gunman fled the scene on foot.
The girl's grief-stricken mother, Bernadine Davidson, told the media afterwards that guns needed to come off the nation's streets.
"They need to do a little more work, harder, to take off the guns and them off the streets. It's too much of guns killing innocent people.
"What my daughter do? What she do? Boy that is a set-up, I could tell anybody that. Gunman just can't run down there just so. How come gunman know a girl down there. Have to be the man set up the gunman but God don't sleep, God don't sleep," she said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police for Tobago, Garfield Moore, said they were concerned about the upsurge in gun crimes on the island.
He said: "We are aware that there are several firearms on the streets and we are asking the general public to come forward and assist us so that we can eradicate the firearms from off the streets and also, we want persons to understand that this is not the way to go.
"We need people to solve their problems differently and not take up firearms or a cutlass and fatally wound another person. There are meditation centres that we can look at, we talk to somebody in the communities to solve our problems.
"This is not the way to go because if we continue like that we will come like other places and we don't want Tobago getting there. In fact, we have five murders for the year already and that's five too much."
Police are yet to ascertain a motive for the killing but two people, including her male companion, were held and are assisting police with their investigations.
District Medical Officer Dr Kumar ordered the body removed to the Scarborough Hospital Mortuary.
Tobago Homicide Bureau is continuing investigations.