To­ba­go record­ed its sec­ond mur­der for 2024 yes­ter­day, af­ter Akinde Bis­soon, of Sou Sou Lands, was found dead in Old Grange.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that Bis­soon’s de­com­pos­ing body was found around 8 am on the side of the road.

Snr Supt Rod­hill Kirk told the me­dia the body bore sev­er­al marks of vi­o­lence.

Kirk said, “Po­lice are con­tin­u­ing its in­ves­ti­ga­tion and as soon as any oth­er in­for­ma­tion comes to us, we will pro­vide it. That is the most I can say at this point in time.”

How­ev­er, sources told Guardian Me­dia that Bis­soon is known to po­lice and had been charged in the past for il­le­gal drug pos­ses­sion.

Mean­while, in­ves­ti­ga­tors are yet to find a mo­tive for the is­land’s first mur­der vic­tim Ka­reem Small, of Pa­tience Hill, who was shot dead near his home on Jan­u­ary 2.

Yes­ter­day, Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Lau­rence His­lop raised con­cerns over the ris­ing crime rates in To­ba­go, par­tic­u­lar­ly the in­creas­ing num­ber of mur­ders. He said this was not a pos­i­tive record for the is­land and called for an end to vi­o­lence and the han­dling of il­le­gal firearms.

“We’ve start­ed the year with two mur­ders, we start­ed the year with shoot­ings in our cap­i­tal and I know for a fact that To­bag­o­ni­ans are not hap­py with the sit­u­a­tion that we face as an is­land as it re­lates to crime,” His­lop said.

How­ev­er, he made it clear the PNM was not in­ter­est­ed in politi­cis­ing the is­sue of crime. In­stead, he said they were ad­dress­ing it from a com­mu­ni­ty and so­cial im­pact stand­point, adding every per­son liv­ing on the is­land is af­fect­ed by the crime prob­lem.

His­lop said crime fight­ing should not be lim­it­ed to en­force­ment on­ly. He ar­gued it re­quired a com­pre­hen­sive ap­proach in­volv­ing the whole gov­ern­ment and com­mu­ni­ty. He ac­knowl­edged the ef­forts of the po­lice ser­vice in To­ba­go, say­ing he re­mains con­fi­dent in their abil­i­ty to re­duce vi­o­lence and gun crimes.

He em­pha­sised that se­cu­ri­ty in To­ba­go ex­tend­ed be­yond polic­ing and bor­der con­trol, en­com­pass­ing com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, de­vel­op­ment, and sports. He urged the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly to take proac­tive steps in cre­at­ing an en­vi­ron­ment that dis­cour­ages crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.

He said the PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil is will­ing to col­lab­o­rate with var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing cit­i­zens, NGOs, church groups and youth or­gan­i­sa­tions, to com­bat crime in To­ba­go.

His­lop al­so de­liv­ered a heart­felt plea to the young men of To­ba­go, warn­ing them of the con­se­quences of em­brac­ing a life of vi­o­lence.

“We don’t need any more blood­shed on the streets of To­ba­go, in the com­mu­ni­ties of To­ba­go. We don’t need any more gun vi­o­lence. We don’t need any more chop­ping, no more stab­bing, no fights. This is an is­land that is known for peo­ple who love one an­oth­er. And so let’s make sure that we get back to that.”

Mean­while, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said his ad­min­is­tra­tion is work­ing on so­cial pro­grammes to help in the fight with crime. He told the me­dia he has plans to host pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions on crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty on the is­land.