The country’s murder toll now stands at 294 after four more were recorded between Thursday night and Friday night.
The victims have been identified as Antonio Dickson, of Sandy Trace, St Barbs, Shiraz Ali, of Boundary Road, San Juan, PH driver Ashar Kirby, of Seaview in Carenage and Nigel Bellot, of Carr Lane, Belmont.
Late last night one man was killed and three others injured in shooting in the La Horquetta district. No other details were immediately available.
Police also reported a woman being stabbed several times outside Express House by a man she knew. The victim was taken to hospital.
Dickson, a PH taxi driver was shot and killed just before six o’clock Friday evening.
Police say gunmen opened fire on Dixon who was seated in a vehicle. He was shot several times in the face and upper body.
Twelve hours earlier, Shiraz Ali was shot and killed in the vicinity of the Aranguez North Secondary School.
Relatives told Guardian Media that every weekday Ali had a morning routine. He would leave his Edinburgh 500, Chaguanas home with his wife Yasmine Mohammed, drop her to work, then carry breakfast for his brother in El Socorro, San Juan, before going to work at a chicken depot in the Croisee.
Yesterday, his routine was disrupted violently when he was gunned down moments after dropping his wife at the Flavorite factory on Boundary Road Extension. Ali was driving his station wagon along the roadway shortly after 6 am when a car pulled up alongside him as he moved past the Aranguez North Secondary School. A gunman sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle opened fire on Ali, hitting him in the head, neck and chest. Ali, a father of three, died in the front seat of his car.
Ali’s wife was among the first to learn of her husband’s death and identified him to police. She was initially responsive to investigators but after giving a statement to police on the scene, took one look at her husband’s car and broke down.
Unable to cope with the grief of seeing her husband’s lifeless body, Mohammed collapsed near an undertaker’s van and had to be carried into the nearby school, where her friends and an MTS security guard tried to console her.
An ambulance was called and concerns were raised about her spiralling heart rate.
Mohammed, however, refused to go with the paramedics when the ambulance arrived, claiming her husband was outside wiping down the car so he could take her to work.
Ali’s brother, Saddiq Ali, told Guardian Media, “This morning I home, waiting for he self (sic), ‘cause every morning he does bring breakfast for me. I eh see him coming, I eh see him coming. Then same time a CEPEP man come and call me, and say ‘look yuh brother now get kill by the road.’”
He added, “I run and see my brother, lie down in the car there.”
In tears, Ali lamented that it was the second murder to rock the family in less than a year. Last December, Ali’s brother-in-law was murdered following a land dispute in Arima. However, relatives do not believe there is any link between that murder and Ali’s murder yesterday. However, they said they had no clue why he was targeted.
“I wish that was me there, not he,” said his brother, “that man doesn’t interfere with nobody. He would give you the last dollar in his pocket.”
Killing in restaurant carpark
Hours before Ali’s murder at about 10.30 pm on Thursday, PH driver Ashar Kirby was killed in the carpark of KFC in Westmoorings.
Kirby was seated in a beige Nissan Almera along with Jamal “Etumbay” Samuel, waiting on Samuel’s girlfriend to purchase their meal.
The woman told police she dropped off the meals in the car and returned inside for the drinks when she heard several gunshots. She told police she saw two gunmen from a distance shooting at the car. Kirby died on the scene while Samuel was shot and wounded. Samuel was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was treated and warded.
Prestige Holdings Ltd (PHL), the local owner of the KFC franchise, extended condolences to the relatives of Kirby and Samuel who was injured in the shooting.
Simon Hardy, CEO of Prestige Holdings Ltd said PHL will co-operate fully with the authorities in their investigations.
Just about half an hour before Kirby was killed, police said at about 10 pm Nigel Bellot was at his home at Carr Lane, Belmont, with a woman when they heard a knocking on the front door. Police said Bellot opened the door and was shot several times. He died on the scene.
Police said Bellot was deported several years ago but was not known to be involved in any illegal activity by them.
Earlier on Thursday at around 1.30 pm, Wendell John, 42, was gunned down just outside the Port-of-Spain General Hospital at the corner of Charlotte Street and Belmont Circular Road.
John was originally from La Platte Village, Maraval, but moved out of the area four months ago. He was known for being comical and throwing picong and investigators believe that he may have been killed for “his mouth.”
In March 2018, John escaped death when he was shot in the leg and abdomen in a drive-by shooting. One person died in that incident, police said.
In Thursday’s incident, John was believed to be either going to or leaving the hospital’s clinic, where he was an outpatient receiving treatment for the previous gunshot wounds.
Hours after his murder, several videos of John in his moods went viral on social media, including one in which he said he had contracted the AIDS virus for the past 20 years.
In the video, John was heard throwing hate slurs and obscenities towards the Rasta City Gang. The person who was recording the video asked John what he would do if he were approached by a member of the Rasta City Gang, to which he replied “Dismantle them.”
When asked about this particular video, John’s father, Anthony Adams, 55, laughed and said his son never meant any of what he said. He said he was participating in the J’Ouvert revelry earlier this year and was drunk at the time.
“Na...he doesn’t have AIDS but that’s how he is always responding to people when they making joke with him. He is always drinking and when he is drunk that is how he does be and everybody knows him to be like that,” Adams told Guardian Media.
Adams said his son had migrated with his mother and two sisters but returned to T&T at the age of 18.
“He came to learn a trade and go back but he never learn nothing. Instead he would lime every day. His mother spoil him from 18 to now, always sending money and shoes and whatever else he wanted.”
He described his son as a person who always enjoyed life.
“He was always liming and drinking and making people laugh. In one of the videos he was dancing. He loved life and was just enjoying it. He was never in any gang thing or any other stupidness.”