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Friday, June 27, 2025

Coast Guardsman killed in Point Fortin

by

Anna-Lisa Paul
55 days ago
20250503

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

South-west­ern po­lice were yes­ter­day hunt­ing for the three sus­pects in­volved in the rob­bery and sub­se­quent mur­der of Coast Guardsman Da­cian John in Point Fortin in the ear­ly hours yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Po­lice said the 36-year-old of La Re­source Road South, D’Abadie, was shot while seat­ed in his Au­di mo­tor­car, which had been parked a short dis­tance away from a friend’s house.

Se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials con­firmed that John, who be­longed to an elite unit with­in the T&T Coast Guard (TTCG), was shot dur­ing the rob­bery af­ter one of the sus­pects dis­cov­ered he had a firearm on his per­son.

Guardian Me­dia was told, “Rob­bery ap­peared to be the pri­ma­ry mo­tive, but it seemed the sus­pects pan­icked af­ter one found the weapon and shout­ed ‘gun’.”

“It ap­peared they may have pan­icked and, be­liev­ing John to be a threat, shot him.”

John was with a group of friends in his car, which had been parked along Cas­sia Street, South­ern Gar­dens, Point Fortin, around 1.15 am on May 2, when they were ap­proached by three men.

Two of the sus­pects, who were armed with firearms ap­proached and be­gan re­liev­ing the oc­cu­pants of cash and valu­ables.

Sev­er­al loud ex­plo­sions were lat­er heard, fol­low­ing which John was seen bleed­ing from gun­shot wounds as the sus­pects es­caped in a wait­ing car.

John was rushed to the Point Fortin Area Hos­pi­tal, where he was pro­nounced dead around 2.25 am.

The apart­ment John shared with his moth­er and sis­ter was emp­ty yes­ter­day, and rel­a­tives de­clined to speak on the record when con­tact­ed.

How­ev­er, a col­league of John de­scribed him as a hum­ble soul who was ded­i­cat­ed to train­ing and de­vel­op­ing younger per­sons.

An avid fit­ness en­thu­si­ast, John was said to be the fa­ther of a young daugh­ter.

The col­league said he loved trav­el­ling and of­ten took va­ca­tions to spend time with his fam­i­ly and was care­ful to stay away from cer­tain sit­u­a­tions, as he be­lieved trou­ble could come fast.

“Every­body is in dis­be­lief,” the friend said.

John is ex­pect­ed to be af­ford­ed a full mil­i­tary fu­ner­al.


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