A longstanding feud between two sides of a family may have led to the murder of Point Fortin father Selvin Sammy, police said yesterday.
Although residents of Country Street, Fanny Village, heard gunshots ringing out around 3.30 am yesterday, it was not until 6.25 am that neighbours alerted his mother, Ellen, that Sammy was lying under the house.
A neighbour contacted Point Fortin police and when PC Carter and a team arrived they found Sammy, 47, with gunshot wounds to the shoulder and head.
Sammy had just moved into the rental house with Ellen and his 15-year-old daughter. His relatives told investigators they left him watching television around 1.30 am and it is believed he heard the dogs barking and went outside to quiet them.
However, an eyewitness said men were seen under the house and it was possible that he was shot in the shoulder before being executed with a shot behind the head.
Region III Homicide Bureau officers, led by acting Sgt Ramjag, and Crime Scene Unit officers processed the scene and found shotgun pellets under the house. Police also took an air rifle from the house, which Sammy's friends said he used for hunting.
Investigators are hoping that CCTV footage from a nearby business will help in identifying his murderers. No one was arrested up to yesterday.
While investigators did not confirm whether his death was part of the family dispute, they said it was one of the motives they were looking into.
Sammy's wider family includes members who own several businesses in Point Fortin. Friends said he recently sold a house he inherited and that had caused a rift among certain family members.
They said he was expected to move into a new house in Valencia that was recently built and had recently purchased a new Ford Ranger. Other relatives said they had also been threatened over money and properties.
On December 30, 2010, Sammy's cousin, Richie Sammy, a poultry depot proprietor, was shot dead.
Police believed Richie's killer was waiting for him when he arrived at his home at Erin Road, Cap-de-Ville, in his white AD wagon around 7 pm
As he drove into his garage, he was shot once in the neck. His sister, Susan, said her siblings were not getting along and she believed someone had ordered a hit on him.
She said Richie was entangled in a family dispute. Richie was also suspected of murdering Ravi Sookdeo, the son of another Point Fortin poultry depot owner in September 2009.
Sookdeo, 24, was working in his father's poultry depot along the Southern Main Road, Point Fortin, when two men walked into the shop.
The men demanded that Sookdeo cut up a chicken and when Sookdeo told the men that he could not, one of them pulled out a gun and shot him in the face. Police initially said his death could have been a case of mistaken identity and those close to the family said a hit was placed on someone who worked at another poultry shop nearby.
