(Trinidad Express) A mother of 11 was among five people murdered between Friday night and yesterday evening.
The 52-year-old woman, who was identified as Charmaine Paul, of Upper Wharton Street, Laventille, was stabbed once to the chest by another woman during an argument over a cellphone.
The killings have now pushed the country’s murder toll for the year so far to 277, according to an Express count.
Investigating officers said at around 6.30 p.m. on Friday, Paul was at Club Nickels, a casino located along lower Charlotte Street, Port of Spain, when the argument broke out.
Officers said Paul approached the woman and accused her of stealing her cellphone some time ago. Eyewitnesses told the Express Paul also took a shovel and began beating the Sea Lots woman to her back.
A security officer who was on duty at the time managed to separate the two, but the argument soon reignited, they said.
It was then the woman pulled out a knife and stabbed Paul once to the left side of her chest.
“She fall on the ground and people call the ambulance, but when they see the ambulance taking too long to respond, someone put her in a private car and carried her to hospital but she was already dead,” said one eyewitness.
Officers said they would be viewing video footage of the incident which was recorded on nearby closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
Just over one hour after that incident, police received reports of a shooting in Picton Road, Laventille.
Upon arrival at the scene around 8 p.m., police said they found the lifeless body of 28-year-old Keron Edwards lying along the roadway.
Another man, Lindon Benjamin, was lying beside him with a bullet wound to the chest.
Detectives said the men were a part of a group liming along the roadway when they were approached by two armed men who began firing at them.
Other members of the group scampered for safety but Edwards, of Dan Kelly, Laventille, was shot several times about the upper body and died at the scene.
Benjamin, 21, was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital where he was listed in a critical condition last night, officers said.
In Diego Martin, two men were shot dead sometime around 1.30 p.m. yesterday. Up to last night, their names were not released by police.
The killings took place along West View Terrace, Four Roads. Both men were shot dead as they sat inside a silver Nissan Almera car along the roadway.
Residents said shortly before the incident, they saw the men driving through the area before hearing a volley of shots.
The men, they said, were not known in the area. Up to late yesterday evening, crime scene investigators, officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations and Criminal Investigations Department (CID) were on the scene.
In Couva yesterday, Dillon Brown, 23, of California, was shot outside a bar as he tried to evade a fight taking place inside the establishment.
Brown was shot multiple times around 4 a.m. and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Police said three men were stabbed during an altercation at the bar, located on the Southern Main Road, Couva.
Brown ran outside the bar, along with other patrons. A car with three occupants stopped and one of them opened fire.
Officers, led by Senior Superintendent of Police of the Central Division Johnny Abraham, responded and about half an hour later found the car abandoned and burned in Roystonia, Couva.
Homicide detectives are continuing investigations into all five killings.
