RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Se­nior Re­porter

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt

An­oth­er night of gun vi­o­lence in Trinidad has left res­i­dents of Co­corite and Ch­agua­nas shak­en af­ter two sep­a­rate shoot­ings on Thurs­day night re­sult­ed in two in­di­vid­u­als be­ing hos­pi­talised.

In Co­corite, around 9.45 pm, a 48-year-old man was shot while so­cial­is­ing near the bas­ket­ball court in the Wa­ter­hole area of Co­corite. The vic­tim, a res­i­dent of Hard­ing Place, Co­corite, was con­vers­ing with a young woman when he saw two men dressed in dark cloth­ing, with jer­seys cov­er­ing their faces, run­ning to­wards him with firearms.

Fear­ing for his life, he at­tempt­ed to flee but heard sev­er­al loud ex­plo­sions and felt burn­ing sen­sa­tions in his legs be­fore col­laps­ing near the Sev­enth-Day hos­pi­tal and West­ern Main Road. Mem­bers of the West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment rushed him to the St James Med­ical Com­plex, where he was treat­ed for mul­ti­ple gun­shot wounds to his legs and groin. He is cur­rent­ly in sta­ble con­di­tion af­ter be­ing trans­ferred to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­cov­ered eleven 9mm spent shells, thir­teen .40 cal­i­bre spent shells, two live 9 mm rounds, a black hat, and a red ban­dana from the scene. Se­nior of­fi­cers from the West­ern Di­vi­sion vis­it­ed the scene as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ued.

In a sep­a­rate in­ci­dent ear­li­er the same day, around 12 am, a 37-year-old man from Cunu­pia was shot while walk­ing to­wards his ve­hi­cle on Chris Ter­race, En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas. The vic­tim re­port­ed hear­ing sev­er­al loud ex­plo­sions be­fore feel­ing a burn­ing sen­sa­tion in his right shoul­der and notic­ing he was bleed­ing.

The sus­pects fled in an un­known di­rec­tion in a black ve­hi­cle. The vic­tim was tak­en to the Ch­agua­nas Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty and lat­er trans­ferred to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, where he is in sta­ble con­di­tion.

The po­lice are con­tin­u­ing their in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to both shoot­ings and urge any­one with in­for­ma­tion to come for­ward.