(Trinidad Guardian) The weekend’s second triple murder was recorded in Cunupia just hours after three other people were killed in Carapo, Arima, on Saturday evening. These latest killings were among five that occurred between Saturday night and yesterday driving up the murder count for the year.
The victims in the third triple murder for the year were 34-year-old electrician Kirvam Ramjattan, of Dindial Street, Cunupia, Shawn Thomas, 37, of Maturita, Arima, and Jevon Ince, 20, a labourer, of Jerningham Junction Road, Cunupia. Ramjattan and Thomas died at the scene while Ince died at around 2.30 am yesterday at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
At around 7.48 pm on Saturday, officers from the Cunupia Police Station got a report about a shooting at Hassarath Road, Cunupia. PCs Archibar and Mohammed of the Central Division Task Force, who were on mobile patrol, went to the scene at around 8.25 pm and found Ramjattan and Thomas lying next to each other in a yard with multiple gunshot wounds. They were told that a third victim, Ince, had been taken to the Chaguanas District Health Facility. Ince was later transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex where he died early yesterday morning.
These killings were among 11 eleven recorded between Saturday and yesterday as gunmen continued a deadly rampage in several parts of the country.
The first triple murder of the weekend occurred shortly after 3 pm on Saturday at Rose Drive, Race Course Road, Carapo, Arima. Residents in the area said they did not know the victims.
According to the police, at around 3.23 pm, PCs Romany and Duncan, of the Northern Division Task Force Area South, were on mobile patrol when they responded to reports of a shooting at Rose Drive.
When they got to the scene they saw a beige Nissan Almera car in a ditch off the roadway. There was a woman in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, a man in the front passenger seat, and another man in a crouched position on the floor in the back of the car. All three victims, who had gunshot injuries on their bodies, were dead at the scene.
They were identified as Justin Paul, 24, his brother Curtis Dobson, 32, and Guyanese national Drupattie Shivnanan, 27, all of Temple Street, Chanka Trace, El Socorro.
Crime scene investigators retrieved Defence Force ammunition at the scene.
Joseph Paul, father of Justin Paul and Curtis Dobson, said he found out about the murders of his sons from social media. He said he contacted the police and even visited two police stations before getting information about the fatal shootings from officers at the Arouca Police Station where the Homicide Dvision is based.
He said Shivnanan was in a relationship with his son Justin.
“They were in the wrong zone at the wrong time. That is how I will describe it from what the police are telling me. Once a strange vehicle comes down in that area they will get one and this is happening all across the country,” Paul said.
He said Justin was a person with a big heart that was bigger than his body and was always willing to help and assist anyone. He believes that the three had gone to Peytonville, Arima, where his older son’s mother lives and that is how they ended up in the area where the shootings took place. Paul said the two were inseparable.
There was another murder yesterday in San Juan. Residents of Granado Street off, Sawmill Avenue, Barataria, reported hearing loud explosions and later found a man with gunshot wounds lying in the roadway. He was later identified as Nkosi Lewis, of Tunapuna. Investigations into that murder are continuing.
Police are also investigating the death of Sangre Grande businessman Shervin Bernard who was killed at his mini-mart in Vega de Oropouche. Eyewitnesses said the suspect shot Bernard and left with cigarettes in a Nissan Tiida vehicle.
Guardian Media understands that Bernard was nephew of former Police Commissioner, Jules Bernard.
There have been 59 murders in 29 days with seven double murders and three triple murders.
Two of the triple murders were in the Northern Division where 24 of the murders for the year occurred.