Investigators say enquiries into the double-murder of marine workers Oswald Alleyne and Mark Stephen suggests that the latter was the killers’ target.
This belief was also shared by a few of the victims’ relatives and friends following the shooting near Stephen’s Valley Lane, Princes Town home on Tuesday.
According to reports, it was around 4.20 am after Alleyne, 63, of Watts Road, New Grant had just picked up Stephen, 41, at his home to go to work.
Alleyne, a diving supervisor and Stephens, a seaman, both worked for a Chaguaramas-based marine company and was heading to the Heritage marine base in Point Fortin to work.
CCTV footage showed a white car pulling up along King Street, a short distance away from the corner of Valley Lane. A man wearing a cap exited the passenger’s door and calmly walked to Valley Lane. As Alleyne reversed his pickup onto King Street, the gunman shot him several times through the driver’s side window. Alleyne attempted to open the door, but could not escape. The gunman then shot Stephen several times before sprinting to the getaway car.
Residents who heard the gunshots saw Stephen hanging out of the pick-up while Alleyne was slumped over the centre console. They contacted the Princes Town police who found both men dead. Officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations, Region Three responded and reviewed the video footage in the area while Southern Division Task Force went in search of the suspects.
Investigators suspect that the killers had intimate details of their victims as they knew that the men would be leaving for work early and positioned themselves. A relative added that if the killers were after Alleyne, they had 15-20 minutes window from the time he left home to when he arrived at Stephen’s house. Relatives said that it was the first day Stephen was returning to work after six months. They said he would usually walk to King Street to wait for Alleyne.
Alleyne’s sister, Patsy and other relatives went to the murder scene but by the time they arrived, all they met was blood. Patsy said that her brother was good to everyone and if there was anyone who had a grievance with him, he would have reached out to him or her first.
“I don’t believe my brother had enemies,” Patsy said.
Stephen’s elder brother David Rousseau said his brother was a quiet and family-oriented man, who worked hard to take care of his 13-year-old son.
Stephens’ friends gathered at his home yesterday. They called him the Godfather of Bakey’s Bar, the watering hole where he and the other villagers hung out. They said Stephen was generous and recently sponsored a lime among friends.
Eleven people have been killed in the first week of the year.