The brazen killing of Ian "Tin Man" Stanley, a prominent Muslim community leader along Wrightson Road in Port-of-Spain, left the city in traffic gridlock yesterday.
It was one of six murders which took place within 20 hours yesterday, from Port-of-Spain to Carapichaima, to San Juan and Couva.
After Stanley, of Farm Road, Rich Plain, Diego Martin, was killed in his car in front of the Femmes du Chalet (Breakfast Shed) around 10.10 am, vehicles were backed up along Wrightson Road as police cordoned off the crime scene and a wrecker was on the site to later remove Stanley's vehicle. Although police could be seen directing traffic along Wrightson Road, motorists heading West were stuck in their vehicles for long periods.
Traffic also crawled along Independence Square and stretched as far back as the Beetham on the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway.
Ian "Tin Man" Stanley.
Investigators said that Stanley was driving a Volkswagen registration number PCT 9934 on the westbound lane of Wrightson Road when on reaching the walkover, a silver Nissan AD Wagon registration number unknown pulled alongside him and occupants fired several shots in his direction before driving off.
His body was slumped behind the wheel. His car crashed into an iron barricade outside the Breakfast Shed by the intersection.
Officers of the Port-of-Spain Division went to the scene with fire officers and observed the deceased with gunshot wounds about the body.
Police said Stanley was the leader of the Unity Road, Rich Plain gang which was warring against the Upper Rich Plain Road Gang for several years.
Police are bracing for reprisals.
The shooting on Wrightson Road caused gridlock traffic on Independence Square, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
KERWIN PIERRE
Meanwhile, 48-year-old Gillian Lewis was shot and killed in Irving Street, San Juan, during the pre-dawn hours.
One of her sons was among the two killed on Thursday night.
The police said the killers came back and shot the other son, 25. However, he was wounded and taken to the hospital for medical treatment.
Police also said the gunmen got information that Lewis was around and returned and killed her.
Lewis' daughter Kezia told Guardian Media that her mother was a loving person.
“You would have to really push her. She was always smiling, she loved my daughter dearly, my daughter loved her dearly, the same way...She was not a person that keeps a lot inside before she even comes out and says all is well. God knows best,” she said crying.
In the incident involving Lewis' son, seven men were liming and playing a game of cards at a house in Petit Bourg, San Juan, when they were ambushed by gunmen on Thursday night.
Lewis' son was killed on the scene while another man died at hospital. The victims were Anthony Richards, 27 and Nikoli McDonald, 20. Five others were shot and wounded in the incident.
Dillon Straughn.
In a separate incident, 24-year-old Dillon Straughn, a labourer from Perseverance Village, Carapichaima, was shot dead early yesterday morning by a resident with his shotgun. Straughn was allegedly caught stealing cables in Bank Village when residents called on him and others to stop. The shooting incident occurred shortly after.
According to police reports, the two other accomplices, a 17 year old of Chase Village and a 16 year old of Perseverance Village were also shot and injured.
The driver of the vehicle fled the scene, leaving the dead man and his accomplices behind.
Around 4.35 am the police responded to a report of someone being shot at Bank Village and found the body.
Investigations are continuing.
Sheldon "Cocky" Coutain.
Shirley Bahadur
A man was gunned down while driving his car along Picton Street in Woodbrook yesterday evening.
Police said preliminary investigations identified the victim as 39-year-old Sheldon Coutain alias Cocky who was known as the Rasta City gang leader of St Francois Valley Road in Belmont. Coutain was well known to the police and had drug, firearm and robbery charges pending.
Up to late last night, the police were at the scene of a home invasion at Mc Bean Village in Couva, near the Rienzi Complex.
Police said at about 8 pm men moving in a black Audi drove straight into the yard of a resident where they gunned down a male occupant, Joel Fernandez.
Guardian Media was told that the victim along with a female relative was well known as he sold sneakers in the area.
Police are also searching for two men who robbed and shot a man in the forehead during a home invasion in Whiteland yesterday. Daniel Johnson, 57, was initially warded in a critical condition at the San Fernando General Hospital, but died last night.
A report stated that at around 1.15 am, two men armed with guns entered Johnson’s home at Paradise Avenue. They went into his bedroom and robbed him of $42,000. They shot him on their way out.
His 17-year-old son who was in the other room found his father lying in a pool of blood. Gasparillo police are investigating.
–Reporting by Raphael John Lall and Rhondor Dowlat-Rostant
