AN­NA LISA PAUL

The coun­try’s mur­der toll in­creased to 139, fol­low­ing two sep­a­rate killings in Laven­tille and Ari­ma on Wednes­day, March 29.

The first in­ci­dent oc­curred around 5:45 pm on March 29, at Up­per Laven­tille Road, Port-of-Spain. 

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands of­fi­cers re­ceived a re­port of a shoot­ing in the vicin­i­ty of Blondell Av­enue. Re­spond­ing of­fi­cers found Matthew Granger ly­ing on the road; his body bore sev­er­al gun­shot wounds.

The 41-year-old man, who lived at Duke Street, Port-of-Spain, had been em­ployed as a loader at Carib Brew­ery, Champs Fleurs.

Re­ports claim Granger was con­front­ed by two men min­utes be­fore the shoot­ing, as he was lim­ing at Ish­mael’s Par­lour, Laven­tille Road.

It is al­leged that a gold Nis­san Ti­i­da ve­hi­cle turned on­to the street and sped up be­fore stop­ping in front the shop.  Once there, gun­men opened fire on the group of per­sons who had been stand­ing out­side.

Of­fi­cers from Homi­cide Bu­reau/Re­gion 1 are con­tin­u­ing en­quiries.

The sec­ond killing took place around 10:20 pm al­so on Wednes­day, March 29.

Re­ports are that un­known per­sons shot at 36-year-old Mikhail Pierre while he was in a car, said to be a sil­ver Nis­san Blue­bird Syl­phy.  His body was then dumped out of the car, which re­port­ed­ly sped off from the scene.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands Pierre had col­lect­ed the Nis­san Syl­phy car ear­li­er in the day, as part of a work-to-own arrange­ment.

Mo­bile of­fi­cers on pa­trol re­ceived a re­port that a man nurs­ing sev­er­al gun­shot wounds had been dumped along Harold Joseph Place in Ari­ma. Up­on ar­rival at the scene, the of­fi­cers found Pierre’s body.

Mikhail Pierre—of Roland Cleve­land and Lennox Year­wood Ex­press­way, Mal­abar—had been shot sev­er­al times in the head and face. The de­ceased had been wear­ing a white jer­sey and a pair of blue three-quar­ter pants and was bare­foot­ed.

Po­lice say al­though the scene was processed, noth­ing of ev­i­den­tial val­ue was re­trieved.

Homi­cide Re­gion 2 of­fi­cers are con­tin­u­ing en­quiries.