Derek Achong

A 36-year-old woman was killed and three of her friends in­jured in a shoot­ing in Ari­ma ear­ly Mon­day.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 1.45 am on Mon­day, Eliz­a­beth Wat­son, of Up­per Hoyte Av­enue, Ma­tu­ri­ta, Ari­ma, was lim­ing with friends at a house at Punette Av­enue, Pin­to Road, Ari­ma, when they saw two men dressed in black ap­proach­ing them. 

The men opened fire on the group be­fore run­ning away through a track. 

Wat­son was shot sev­er­al times. Tami­ka Abra­ham, 27, and her 25-year-old neigh­bour, An­du Welling­ton, both of Punette Av­enue, Pin­to Road, were al­so shot sev­er­al times, while 19-year-old Waller­field res­i­dent Shaquille Hazel was shot in his back and foot. 

All four vic­tims were tak­en to the Ari­ma Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal by their friends, who es­caped the shoot­ing un­scathed. 

Wat­son was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival, while her three friends were treat­ed and trans­ferred to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex in Mt Hope. They re­mained ward­ed in a sta­ble con­di­tion, up to late yes­ter­day. 

Homi­cide de­tec­tives and crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors col­lect­ed 21 spent 9 mm shells on the scene of the shoot­ing. 

Se­nior Supt Fran­cis and In­sp Jug­mo­han vis­it­ed the scene.

Con­sta­ble Maraj of the Re­gion Two Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions. 

The mur­der count for the year stood at 159, up to late yes­ter­day. 

Coast Guard of­fi­cer shoots man in park­ing squab­ble 

A Coast Guard of­fi­cer was forced to shoot a man, who at­tacked him for in­ter­ven­ing in a park­ing dis­pute. 

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 1.15 am, the pet­ty of­fi­cer was lim­ing near a liquor mart at Range Road, Five Rivers, Arou­ca, when he saw two men en­gaged in a brawl over a park­ing spot. 

The off-du­ty of­fi­cer at­tempt­ed to in­ter­vene to sep­a­rate the feud­ing par­ties but one of the men at­tacked him. 

The 43-year-old man pushed the of­fi­cer to the ground and con­tin­ued to at­tack him. 

The of­fi­cer man­aged to draw his li­censed firearm and shot the man twice-once to his right arm and once to his hip. 

The man was tak­en to the Ari­ma Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal. He was treat­ed and dis­charged. 

The of­fi­cer was in­ter­ro­gat­ed by po­lice be­fore be­ing re­leased pend­ing fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions. 

Uniden­ti­fied man killed in Wright­son Road ac­ci­dent

Po­lice are seek­ing the pub­lic’s as­sis­tance in iden­ti­fy­ing a man, who died af­ter be­ing struck by a ve­hi­cle in Port-of-Spain on Sun­day night. 

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 7.45 pm, the man was at­tempt­ing to cross Wright­son Road near Al­ber­to Street, in Wood­brook, when a Mit­subishi Sportero pick-up truck that was trav­el­ling in the east­bound lane col­lid­ed with him. 

The 40-year-old dri­ver of the ve­hi­cle stopped and con­tact­ed the po­lice. 

The man, who is of African de­scent and ap­prox­i­mate­ly five feet tall, was pro­nounced dead on the scene by a Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer (DMO). 

Po­lice said that they be­lieve that the vic­tim was a home­less man, who slept un­der a bus shel­ter near where the ac­ci­dent oc­curred. 

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.