Ballistic tests on spent shells have found that the same gun was used in the Broad Street and Stone Avenue shootings, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said yesterday.
The Crime Chief said that from all indications, two separate sets of gunmen committed the three high-voltage shootings which occurred within the last month and he insisted that the killings are linked.
Persaud explained that they have been unable to identify what type of assault rifles were used in the two latest killings but knows that the .45 spent shells found at Broad Street match those found at Stone Avenue.
The first incident which claimed the lives of five persons including a 23-year-old woman and her three year old son occurred on September 4. Police have since said that the other victims, Steve Jupiter, Christopher Gordon and Sherwin Jerome were the targets and were believed to have been killed over missing drugs.
Jupiter has been described by police as a `hit man’ and a drug transporter while Gordon who was deported for narcotics related offences was also known to be involved in criminal activities. Bullets recovered did not match any firearms used at any other crime scene, which according to Police Commissioner, Henry Greene means that “these are new firearms on the scene”.
Almost four weeks later, on October 1, Mark Caesar known as ‘Lil Mark’ was gunned down at the corner of Broad and Adelaide streets as he sat on a fire hydrant eating fried chicken.
While the motive for this killing is unclear, police sources have said that Caesar and Jupiter were friends and that the two killings might be somehow linked.
Then on Monday night, three gunmen opened fire on a car transporting Patrick Goodluck and Godfrey Grootfaam. The two men died almost instantly from multiple gunshot wounds. According to Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, Goodluck along with the men killed in the other two attacks were associates and “would’ve worked for the same people”.
Twenty-seven 7.62 x 39 spent shells, four 9mm and six .45 spent shells were recovered at the latest crime scene.