…attacks by gangs ‘well coordinated using lookouts’
(Trinidad Express) Criminal gangs operating in hotspot areas in the country have started monitoring police patrols before carrying out illegal activities.
Both the mass shooting in Harpe Place, Port of Spain, in March that left five men dead and the Belmont shooting that culminated at the Port of Spain General Hospital on June 2, claiming the lives of four men, have been described by senior intelligence sources as fitting this criminal modus operandi. On March 16, gunmen opened fire on a group of men liming at Harpe Place, along Observatory Street, killing police sergeant Larry Phillip, 51, Pete Noray, 49, Devon Jack, 42, Randy Greaves, 32, and Rudolph Donnie James.
A similar mass shooting was repeated on the night of June 2, when gunmen pulled up in a white AD wagon and opened fire on a group of men at Lange Street, Gonzales, Belmont, around 7.45 p.m., minutes after the men had finished a football game at a nearby field.
The victims were 21-year-old Jayden Reyes and 31-year-old Abdul Williams, 31-year-old Johnathan Arjoon and the intended target—Kevin “Grimes” King—a former lieutenant of the Sixx gang.
King, Arjoon and several other injured persons were taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital for treatment.
Unknown to them, their assailants had followed and police said the gunmen entered the hospital near the ambulance ramp area and opened fire on the injured King, hitting him and several others before escaping.
King and Arjoon were later declared dead, while several others were left nursing injuries.
“We know that King was the intended target while the others that died were innocent victims,” explained a senior intelligence officer.
Senior intelligence sources told the Sunday Express how King’s murder was co-ordinated, as well as the careful planning of these gangs in orchestrating similar hits.
One senior intelligence source explained the killing of Amor Howe on February 20—described as a “man of business” for the Seven gang—has since sparked a spate of murders in the underworld.
King was a former Rasta City (now known as the Seven gang) member since 2018.
However, intelligence and underworld sources confirmed King had a falling-out with one of the lieutenants of the Seven gang in the Belmont area known by the alias “Kush Boss” and recently switched his allegiance to the Sixx gang.
The man known as “Kush Boss”, sources say, has since gone into hiding, as he is wanted for questioning with a recent murder.
King, meanwhile, had been keeping a low profile since the February killing of Howe.
“He had kept out of sight for months since then, but was encouraged to come to a gathering where football was being played and took a chance,” explained the senior intelligence source.
An underworld informant said King had also played football the previous day at that same location.
The senior intelligence source said on the day of the murders, “when he was sighted, calls were made and the killers were activated and even as the killers fled the scene, an informant kept watch as the injured were being taken to seek medical attention. That informant then relayed to the killers the vehicle transporting the men and their status.
“These attacks are well coordinated using lookouts who are placed strategically to monitor the IATF and Port of Spain Task Force base and their patrols,” said the source.
Sources say the planning of the Harpe Place murders was no different. “When the five persons were murdered in Harpe Place, a confidential source revealed that the killers patiently waited until the police/army patrol was back in base on Charlotte Street before launching their attack,” a source said.
Another source said following the shooting of Howe, King and others had been alerted about the threat to their lives by law enforcement and other sources.
“For months the killers engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with law enforcement, which led to seizures of firearms and arrest of two suspects in the Port of Spain district.
“(King) thought that key shooters were behind bars and he could take a chance, but forgot there are always replacement killers that are sourced from different areas that would take the job for the right price,” said the senior intelligence source.
Following the brazen shooting at the Port of Spain General Hospital on June 2, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, along with Commissioner of Police Erla Christopher, visited the scene of the shooting at Gonzales and also at the hospital.
Hinds condemned the killings and the brazenness of the suspects to follow the injured victims to the hospital to ensure their target had been killed.
Hinds later added, “When gunmen can do that and then come to the hospital to finish off their dirty work, it shows you that they have no fear or respect for anything, anyone, including the law of Trinidad and Tobago and how sanctions of the law work against them, that is where we are.”
These reports of gang-related killings, he noted, were happening even with the anti-gang legislation.
