(Trinidad Express) A woman described as a gang informer and an Arima man were killed in separate incidents between early yesterday morning and midday.
Another homicide in south Trinidad pushed the year’s murder toll to 259.
On August 18 last year the murder toll stood at 248.
The first murder occurred at 3.25 a.m.
The victim, Ayanna Williams, 30, and her boyfriend, Michael Boyne were asleep at Williams’ Pelican Street Extension, Morvant home when a man approached the small house, broke through the front door and opened fire as they slept.
Williams was shot 13 times about the body and died on the spot.
Boyne was shot in both arms and left leg.
The gunman fled the scene without taking anything.
Boyne called the police and a team of officers from the Morvant CID and the Homicide Bureau, Port of Spain visited the scene.
Investigators later told reporters that Williams was well known to them.
They said that she worked as an informer for a major gang in Morvant whose leader is currently in prison.
Police said that Williams would be the one who would call her gang associates and tell them exactly where their enemies were.
Her body was taken to the Port of Spain Mortuary.
The other murder occurred at 11.25 a.m. in the Maracas Valley, St Joseph area.
The victim, Israel Fernandez of Arima was at the Guarata Village, Maracas Valley home of his father when at around 11.30 a.m., he received a call on his cellphone.
Fernandez walked outside his father’s house to continue the conversation when a gunman walked up to him and opened fire.
Residents heard the gunshots and when they came outside they saw Hernandez’s body in a drain.
A team of officers including Insp David, Sgt Samuel and Cpl Lynch visited the scene where they conducted enquiries.
The body was later taken to the Port of Spain Mortuary and a postmortem is expected to be done on Tuesday.
In an unrelated incident, a Rio Claro contractor was gunned down and robbed at his home last Friday by thieves.
Prisca Babolal, of Clear Water Gardens, was killed while paying workers their salaries.
Babolal’s wife, Ramdai Bachoo, 45, said the two thieves ran into the bushes behind their home and escaped with the money.
Bachoo said around 2 p.m. her husband was outside the house with their nine employees.
She was inside the house when she heard three loud explosions.
“I came outside and saw someone with a bandana around part of his face. My husband was on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head. He told them he did not have the money and one of the workers had it. But they still shot him,” his wife told the Sunday Express.
Babolal did not always pay his workers at his home, she said. She was uncertain of how much money the thieves had stolen.
Bachoo said her husband worked at the Ministry of Works before he opened his own construction business eight years ago.
She said business had been “up and down”, but he had never received any threats nor was he robbed previously.
In a message to the criminals Babolal’s wife of 13 years said: “Don’t kill innocent people. If you want something, work hard for it.”
She said the government ought to re-implement the death penalty to deal with people convicted of murder.
An autopsy is expected to be conducted on his body at the Forensic Science Centre, St James on Tuesday.
Police said no suspects had been detained up to yesterday.
