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Tuesday, July 8, 2025

6 murders in less than 24 hours

by

Anna-Lisa Paul
1725 days ago
20201017
 Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.

NICOLE DRAYTON

Less than 24 hours af­ter Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith de­part­ed T&T for a much-need­ed va­ca­tion, six peo­ple were left dead and sev­er­al oth­ers hos­pi­talised dur­ing a spate of mur­ders be­tween Fri­day night and Sat­ur­day.

Grif­fith, who pro­ceed­ed on leave from Oc­to­ber 2 to No­vem­ber 1, re­port­ed­ly left for Eu­rope to spend time with his son, Gary Grif­fith III, who plays pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball abroad.

The killings took place in San Fer­nan­do, Arou­ca, Pleas­antville, and La Ro­main.

In the first killing around 5.30 pm on Oc­to­ber 16 po­lice in Princes Town were called to an agri­cul­tur­al plot at Bor­de Narve Branch Road af­ter a farmer con­front­ed a man who had been caught steal­ing plan­tains from his gar­den.

It is al­leged the thief was shot by the farmer who no­ti­fied of­fi­cers of the killing. The farmer re­mained de­tained by po­lice up to late Sat­ur­day.

In the sec­ond in­ci­dent around 5.50 pm in La Ro­main, po­lice were called to the scene of a mur­der af­ter the body of 42-year-old Ju­nior Tim­o­thy was found in his ve­hi­cle along the South­ern Main Road, La Ro­main.

Tim­o­thy, who lived at Alexan­der Street, was slumped in his grey Hyundai Tuc­son. He had been shot once in the head.

In the third in­ci­dent around 7 pm, a Pleas­antville man was killed dur­ing a dri­ve-by shoot­ing.

Vic­tor Stew­art, 28, of Xe­nia Dri­ve, died be­hind the wheel of his Nis­san Ti­i­da af­ter a ve­hi­cle pulled along­side them as they drove along Lord Street, San Fer­nan­do, and the oc­cu­pants opened fire on them.

As Stew­art slumped dead, the car crashed in­to a gate.

His two friends, a 33-year-old and a 17-year-old from Pleas­antville were al­so in­jured.

Both were tak­en to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where they were treat­ed and dis­charged.

Mean­while, the fourth mur­der oc­curred just be­fore mid­night on Fri­day as the body of Arou­ca res­i­dent Ker­win Lewis, 30, was found near his home at Sa­van­nah Trace, Gar­den Vil­lage.

Rel­a­tives re­port­ed hear­ing loud ex­plo­sions around 11.45 pm and up­on check­ing, they found his body ly­ing on a dirt track lead­ing to a va­cant lot of land used for farm­ing.

It is be­lieved that Lewis was killed for be­ing a po­lice in­for­mant. Of­fi­cers re­trieved six spent shells and one live round at the scene.

Round­ing out the six mur­ders with­in the 24 hours were vic­tims 62-year-old Car­lyle Pe­ter Brown of South­ern Main Road, La Ro­main, and 27-year-old Kern Cuffy of George Street, La Ro­main, who died in­stant­ly af­ter gun­men opened fire as they were play­ing cards.

The two vic­tims had been seat­ed in Cuffy’s gallery when the killers who were wear­ing hood­ies, walked up and shot them both around 12.15 am Sat­ur­day.

Cuffy was shot in the ab­domen while Brown was shot in the head.

Cuffy’s neigh­bours, a 34-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man, were al­so shot. They were tak­en to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment.

The man was treat­ed and dis­charged while the woman re­mained ward­ed up to late Sat­ur­day.

Murder


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