(Trinidad Guardian) Police have launched a manhunt for two suspects, who fatally shot a former member of the Medical Board of Trinidad & Tobago just meters away from his Wallerfield home yesterday.
Dr Vin Sein Chiang was shot twice in the chest after he tried to defend himself from the two men who ambushed him while he was attempting to remove a wooden pallet from the roadway as he left home to make his way to his Port-of-Spain office.
It is suspected that the men may have wanted to take Chiang’s silver pickup van, however, nothing was taken from him. The two suspects were seen running away from the scene.
According to a police report, at about 4.30 am Chiang, 75, had just left his home at Lovers Lane in Wallerfield when residents reported that he came out of his van just around the corner from his house.
It is believed he noticed a wooden pallet placed across the gravel road and he got out to move it, he was ambushed by the two suspects.
Police said Chiang made an attempt to defend himself when he whipped out a knife from a sack on his waist and attempted to stab at one of the men.
That was when he was shot twice. Chiang’s body was found lying next to his vehicle.
Police are also investigating another theory that there may have been a hit on Chaing’s life but a motive is yet to be determined.
Speaking with the Guardian Media yesterday, one of Chiang’s neighbours said she heard three shots— one of which she believes was a warning shot.
“It was 4.30 am when I hear three gunshots. Before that, I heard the doctor screaming and shouting out his wife’s name. I saw her running out and then I hear the gunshots.
“One I feel was a warning shot for she to run back in her house and for we not to run outside.”
The neighbour said residents in the area believed that the two suspects are from the area.
She said they also suspected that Chiang was the intended victim. “Just five minutes before a car drove off…one of the people here left for work and then as the doctor ready to leave home they put a wooden pallet on the road. Something strange about that…maybe somebody wanted him dead or maybe his van but the van remain there. We frighten to even talk right now.”
Chiang’s van was seen parked in his yard up to after 1 pm. His wife’s sister came out from inside the house and told the Guardian Media that they had no comment on the incident.
About 20 minutes after, Chiang’s wife left the area driving his van followed by another vehicle driven by her sister.
Neighbours questioned why the police did not seize the van to have it processed as it was part of the crime scene.
A shop owner in the area said he knew Chiang as a pleasant and quiet individual.
“Every day before 6 pm he would stop to buy stuff in the parlour. But things never seemed to go well for him. He used to be seen walking the road with his umbrella in hand and flowers for his woman,” the shop owner said.
“Then he got a van and it crashed. He got a next van and he lost it in floodwaters in the last big flooding. We remember he was on the van hood waving for help and was saved. Just about four months ago we see him with this new van,” the shop owner added.
Chiang was known as an advocate for healthy living.
In an article titled: ‘Health and Happiness after Retirement’ which he authored in the T&T Association of Retired People December 2008 magazine, Chiang motivated retirees to “relax and unwind and bask in the golden glow of your twilight years after a lifetime of dedication and continuous toil and tears.”
He encouraged people to enjoy the fruits of their endless labour from their “most productive years” so as to live a healthy, active and stress-free retirement.
Chiang was given an instrument of appointment to the Medical Board of T&T in 2011.