(Trinidad Express) An 18-year-old trainee of the Helping Youth Prepare for Employment (HYPE) programme was yesterday stabbed to death outside the compound of Metal Industries Company Ltd (MIC), in Macoya, allegedly by a fellow trainee.
Up to late yesterday, Tunapuna detectives were searching for a 21-year-old Barataria man in connection with the incident. The murder toll now stands at 302 for the year to date, with 30 murders occurring during the State of Emergency since it was declared on August 21.
At November 2, 2010, the murder toll for the year was 406.
The dead man has been identified by police as Kevin Daniel Francis, of Upper Cemetery Street, Diego Martin. He was stabbed once in the neck, during break-time, by the suspect while standing outside MIC’s compound near a parlour. The incident occurred around 9.40 a.m. at Century Drive, Trincity Industrial Estate, Macoya.
It may have stemmed from two previous disputes Francis had with the suspect last Tuesday and on Thursday, police said.
After Francis was stabbed, the suspect ran along a track leading to the Priority Bus Route (PBR), then east along the PBR, where he threw a green and black blood-stained knife into a drain under a tree.
The suspect then stopped and briefly spoke with two female CEPEP employees and asked them for money to travel on board a maxi-taxi.
The women, who had seen the suspect attempting to flee the area, said they told him that they did not have cash on them. He then boarded a 12-seater maxi-taxi and left the area.
Sgts Mark Maharaj, Basdeo Sinanan and PC Akil Bernard, of the Tunapuna CID, recovered a weapon more than a mile from the crime scene.
The officers were searching the track where the suspect had made his escape from Century Drive, to the point where he boarded the maxi-taxi, when they found the weapon.
Shortly after the incident, classes at the HYPE facility were dismissed for the day, and as trainees made their way through a track toward the PBR, they were heard speaking about the incident.
“He (suspect) stabbed him in the neck to kill him,” said one trainee, while another described the incident as very tragic. “He didn’t deserve to die that way, boy. (Suspect named) didn’t have to kill the youth man,” said a fellow trainee as he made his way home.
Several MIC trainees, who gathered at the scene where the incident occurred, said had the police or the emergency services arrived in a timely manner, Francis’s life could have been saved.
“Had the police and the ambulance service arrived much earlier, I’m sure he (Francis) would have been alive today. The boy remained on the ground there for more than half an hour to be taken to hospital, and no one came. Is only when they realised nobody was coming for him, they took one of the (MIC’s) vehicles and carry him to the hospital, and long after the ambulance arrive,” an angry MIC trainee said.
One of the vendors, who saw Francis in a pool of his blood outside her booth, described the incident as very unfortunate, and said it has severely affected her.
“He does come here every time and stand up in that same spot when is break-time. I thought he was vomiting and only when I came outside I realised he get stabbed, but he died before he was even taken to hospital,” she said.
“All my stomach hurting me right now and it’s so sad to know that something like this could happen right here,” the woman said.
Visiting the scene were Snr Supt David Abraham, ASP Nazrool Hosein, Insp Ramrattan Jugmohan and Sgt Learie Figaro and PCs Jasper and Newton. Sgt Sinanan is probing the incident.
