(Trinidad Express) A restaurant owner was gunned down in front his Ellerslie Plaza, Maraval, business yesterday, in what the police are describing as a hit.
Anthony Chin, 61, owned the China Palace Restaurant at the shopping centre and lived with his wife at Hillsborough, Maraval.
Police said around 11.55 a.m., officers on patrol heard two gunshots coming from the vicinity of the mall.
They heard another gunshot and, as they drove in, they found Chin on the ground on a walkway in front the glass doors leading to his restaurant.
He had one gunshot to his chest, which exited through his back, and another to his head.
Eyewitnesses said two men walked up to Chin while he was speaking on his cellphone.
One of the men who had already pulled out a gun pointed it at Chin and fired a single shot.
As the man lay on the ground, the man fired another shot at his head, killing the businessman instantly.
The two then turned and ran off, heading toward a covered parking lot, and fired another shot at a security officer who was running after them. The guard was not injured.
Only the restaurants and other dining areas were open at the shopping mall. Police shut down the establishments as crime scene investigators arrived and began processing the scene for evidence.
Officers from the St Clair Police Station blocked off the area to passersby, who had gathered close to the scene.
Chin’s murder comes on the heels of the kidnapping of another Chinese restaurant owner, Xue Hua Shan, 31, who was abducted outside her Seventh Street, Barataria, home.
She owns Happy Garden Restaurant at St Helena and her relatives have received a TT$4 million dollar ransom demand—via text message—for her safe release.
She remained in the hands of her kidnappers up to press time last night. Homicide Bureau investigators are continuing enquiries into Chin’s murder.
So far, there have been 127 murders for the year.