(Trinidad Express) Anger coursed through the Gasparillo Road, Santa Cruz, community yesterday after three residents were shot dead and three others injured during an incident with police in Chaguanas earlier in the day.
The three men killed by police have been identified as Nkosi Borde, 28; Nigel Eminess, 21; and Hayden Honore, 31.
They lived near one another along La Sargasse Road, Santa Cruz.Friends of the dead men sat in the area talking about the good times they spent with the men and the way in which they were killed.
The three injured men have been identified by their relatives as Shane Carmona, Clint Mitchell and Brendon Benjamin.
Carmona, the driver and owner of a silver Nissan Wingroad car, was shot in the head and arm, while Mitchell sustained a gunshot injury to his hand and Benjamin to his hand and abdomen.
Relatives of the six victims claim the men had gone out to lime to celebrate the lifting of curfew restrictions in the country, when they got into an altercation with a group of men who attempted to rob one of them at the Rich Gold bar in Chase Village.
There was another altercation outside the club and shots were fired and a report was made to the police. Police said they responded to the incident and a highspeed chase and shootout ensued along the Uriah Butler Highway, Chaguanas.
Three men were subsequently killed and three others wounded. The wounded men ran and hid in bushes.
They later surrendered to police. Relatives of the men said yesterday they were victims of an earlier robbery and shooting incident, and not robbery suspects.
They claimed that the men were not armed and believed the people who were chasing and shooting at them were their earlier assailants and not police.
Relatives said they were able to speak with Carmona, Mitchell and Benjamin before they surrendered themselves to police while hiding in bushes off the Uriah Butler Highway.