KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

De­spite the on­go­ing state of emer­gency, which has con­tributed to a de­cline in mur­ders, gun vi­o­lence claimed three lives in south Trinidad.

Homi­cide de­tec­tives were kept busy be­tween Fri­day af­ter­noon and yes­ter­day morn­ing as Josi­ah Phillip, Mar­vin Hamil­ton, and Stephen Vial­va were all fa­tal­ly shot in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents.

Phillip, 27 of Gon­za­les Vil­lage, Guapo, died at Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal af­ter be­ing shot near his home along Sal­ick Trace.

Phillip’s un­cle, Kelon Lewis, said the at­tack came with­out warn­ing. “He was just hang­ing out near my place, talk­ing on the phone with one of his cousins, when the gun­man ap­peared,” Lewis said. He added that the as­sailant passed by ca­su­al­ly, and no one sus­pect­ed any­thing, as­sum­ing the man was go­ing to buy weed.

Rel­a­tives are un­sure of the mo­tive, though spec­u­la­tion sur­rounds past in­ci­dents. Phillip’s moth­er, Lisa, has been left trau­ma­tised by the loss of her on­ly son.

Po­lice said the gun­man, dressed in a black hood­ie and dark three-quar­ter pants, shot Phillip in the head around 8 pm at the cor­ner of Sal­ick Trace and Au­gus­tus Trace be­fore flee­ing on foot. Res­i­dents rushed Phillip to the hos­pi­tal, where he was pro­nounced dead. In­ves­ti­ga­tors not­ed that the fa­tal shot may have been fired from a low-ve­loc­i­ty hand­gun.

Homi­cide de­tec­tives processed the scene but have yet to iden­ti­fy a sus­pect. Phillip’s body is ex­pect­ed to be sent to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre for an au­top­sy next week.

Hamil­ton, 45, of Mu­ralie Trace, St Mary’s, was shot dead in his ve­hi­cle in Moru­ga yes­ter­day morn­ing. Around 3.45 am, po­lice re­spond­ed to re­ports of gun­fire near the RC church be­fore Branker Trace in Fifth Com­pa­ny, where Hamil­ton was found slumped in a sil­ver Nis­san Sun­ny B14 and un­re­spon­sive.

Vial­va, 37, was shot dead at his home in Williamsville on Fri­day in what po­lice are clas­si­fy­ing as an un­nat­ur­al death. Au­thor­i­ties said Vial­va, armed with a firearm, threat­ened a male rel­a­tive be­fore a strug­gle en­sued in­side his moth­er’s home on White­land Road. Dur­ing the al­ter­ca­tion, the firearm dis­charged, fa­tal­ly wound­ing Vial­va in the pelvic area.

Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­trieved a Spring­field pis­tol, a mag­a­zine, two live .40-cal­i­bre rounds marked “S&W,” and one spent cas­ing. The rel­a­tive in­volved was tak­en to San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment af­ter the in­ci­dent.

Po­lice con­tin­ue to in­ves­ti­gate all three cas­es.