(Trinidad Guardian) A brazen ambush by gang members led to carnage along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in St Augustine yesterday, as four people, including an innocent woman who was in her house, were murdered.
The gunmen were targeting the Trinibad artiste known as Kashif “Kman 6ixx” Alexander when they launched a gun attack along the westbound lane of one of the country’s busiest highways. Police believe the attack was orchestrated after a picture of the entertainer and his entourage, showing them set to depart the airport in Barbados for Trinidad, was posted to social media less than one hour before.
Instead, the attackers killed cousins Damien Criss, 26, and Levi Criss, who was said to be in his mid-20s, along with Jerry Hollingsworth, 31.
Lana Sahadeo, 51, of Bassie Street, St Augustine, was also killed after being hit by a bullet intended for one of the other victims. Sahadeo was the owner of the Silver Spoons Eatery in Valsayn.
Investigators confirmed Alexander’s flight landed at the Piarco International Airport at 1.40 pm and the group left there in a white wagon around 2.35 pm.
It was reported that as the car stopped at the intersection at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, a black car pulled alongside and gunmen opened fire on the entertainer’s car.
The driver of the car under attack sped off in an attempt to escape but the other car pursued them and the gunmen continued firing, until the other car ran through the metal barrier on the left side of the roadway, just before the walkover there, and crashed into a container near to Steve and Associates, a business place.
After the car crashed, some of the passengers ran out and began running in various directions. However, the gunmen got out their vehicle and first pumped several bullets into the driver, who had been pinned behind the wheel, before pursuing the others. The driver died at the scene.
The gunmen shot another of the victims as he ran east along the highway. He collapsed and died in the middle of the roadway. All this while there were scores of motorists heading east in traffic. The third man was pursued and killed along Bassie Street.
Police believe Sahadeo may have been peeping from a window of her second-storey house as the gunshots rang out, and was struck in the head by a stray bullet as the gunmen ran shooting after their target along Bassie Street.
Guardian Media understands that Sahadeo was due to the leave the country on Friday for Miami.
One of the two surviving members of the attack was said to be nursing an injury to the right shoulder, while Alexander escaped unharmed.
Police said he also survived a gun attack in October along Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook.
These killings pushed the year’s murder toll to 567 yesterday, compared to 598 for the corresponding period last year.
As Sahadeo’s relatives rushed to her home last evening as news of the killings spread, residents and friends wept openly as they mourned her passing.
One woman described her as a, “friendly, loving, caring, easy going person who would give you anything.”
Remembering Sahadeo’s famous dishes which she was widely known for, such as baigan choka, fry aloo and tomato choka, which persons would line up for daily at Valsayn, the emotional woman cried, “The crime situation is out of control. No where is safe any more. I am scared to go anywhere…she was at home.”
The mid-afternoon shootings led to a traffic gridlock along both lanes of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, and resulted in the authorities diverting traffic along the Priority Bus Route, which was later opened up to traffic from certain areas by the Ministry of Works and Transport.
