(Trinidad Express) – Six murders across the country over the weekend kept homicide officers busy, sending the murder toll to 250.

Three women, one three months pregnant, were among the victims.

On Saturday night, a couple was shot dead in Biche and a woman was shot dead by a relative in Cedros.

Around 1 am on Sunday a gunman shot dead a teenager and wounded her friend at Pashley Street, Laventille.

At that same hour, detectives were called out to investigate another shooting incident and found the body of a Las Cuevas man, with gunshot injuries, in Enterprise. He died 30 minutes later.

Police are also investigating the murder of Jason Allsop, whose body was found on Saturday at the old train line in Marabella.

The comparable murder toll for last year stood at 261, and the year closed off with 509 homicides.

Detectives said the killing of the couple at Biche may be linked to a criminal matter before the court.

They were shot dead while returning to their home at New Lands in Biche on Saturday night.

Jevon Johnston Murray, 20, and his wife, Shantel Byer, 16, were ambushed by a gunman and shot multiple times. The couple had a two-year-old daughter, and Byer was three months pregnant.

According to police, a man emerged from the bushes and shot Byer in the head and Murray in the chest, before making his escape.

Murray’s younger brother, officers said, was walking ahead of the couple, when the incident occurred. Upon hearing gunshots, the youngster ran off, and returned a short while later and discovered the victims dead along the roadway.

Officers believe the gunman went into nearby bushes to wait for the couple after he received information they were at a nearby shop.

According to police, Murray, also known as ‘Niner’, was the complainant in a matter before the court in which he was chopped by a fellow villager. His wife, Byer, was a witness in the matter.

Officers said, based on information they have received, the killing may have been linked to the court case.

Relatives said the couple was staying at the home of Murray’s mother. Murray also had addresses at Monte Grande in Tunapuna and John John, Laventille, while Byer lived at Pasea Street, off Fairley Street, Tunapuna Road.

At Murray’s home in Tunapuna, several of his friends were preparing meals and drinking alcohol under a tent erected for a wake. One of the victim’s cousins, Sharon Ramkhelawan, told the Express that relatives are yet to come to terms with the incident, particularly Murray’s mother.

’He was a cool and quiet person who never use to bother nobody. Right now we feel sad because we don’t really know what to do and his mother has been affected the worst. All them fellas in the yard were his good friends and all of them sad that he’s gone,’ Ramkhelawan said.

At Byer’s home, tears flowed for the victim and her unborn child. Holding two-year-old Tyanna Romany, Byer’s daughter, the victim’s mother Carol Ann Henry described the incident as a great loss to her family.

’It like if they take out a part from inside my body and destroyed it,’ Henry said as she described the way she felt after receiving a telephone call stating that her daughter had been shot and killed.

She said Byer wanted to become a hairdresser and often did the hair of women living in the area.

“I would miss everything about her. But I leave it in the hands of the Lord and with prayers; the Lord will take care of that. They didn’t give life, but they took her life,” Henry said.