Gunmen opened fire outside a parlour at Claxton Bay on Saturday night, killing scrap iron dealer Diego Forde and wounding three others.
Forde, 40, of Lodge Road, Claxton Bay, died on the spot after being shot on the head.
Another man known only as Scratchy remained warded at the San Fernando General Hospital while two others who received minor injuries and were discharged.
Police said around 9 pm, two gunmen stormed the parlour and began firing at point-blank range. They escaped in the nearby bushes, eyewitnesses told police.
ASP Smith and a team of police officers of the Couva CID including Cpl Lallbeharry, PCs Duncan and Sampson, and Homicide Region III officers Cpl Bridgemohan and Gordon responded to the shooting.
Forde’s body was removed to the Forensic Science Centre where an autopsy will be done today.
A video of Forde gasping for breath was circulated on social media yesterday. Forde’s family, who lived two houses away from where the shooting occurred, said they were baffled over the killing.
His father, Glenn Forde, said he was cleaning his kitchen around 9.30 pm when he heard the gunshots ringing off in rapid succession on top of the hill near his home.
“I said to myself, ‘Oh Gawd, I wonder who dead now,” and then about ten minutes later someone came knocking on the door saying, ‘Daddy you hear what happened? They just killed Diego,’” Forde recalled.
“I did not go to see. I don’t know who did it or why,” Glenn said. His daughter, Dawn, who sells barbecue at Claxton Bay Junction, said she was at work when she got the news.
“They say someone came and shoot up the parlour. My brother was accustomed to going there and liming,” Dawn said.
She said Forde used to hustle scrap iron.
“He was a quiet, easy-going man. He used to buy food from me almost every weekend,” Dawn said.
She added that Forde had four children between the ages of 15 and one-year-old. She said Forde was nicknamed “Sugardaddy” and “Blogo”. Saying she did not know if her brother had any falling out with anyone, Dawn said it was the first time that such an incident occurred in the family.
Forde’s death brought the murder rate to 104 bringing the total number of people killed for the weekend to six.
On Friday, Terrance “Boomy” Patrick, Christian Mohammed, Daniel Tannis and Candace James were liming at a home at John Street in Enterprise, when a Nissan Tiida stopped in front of the property. The car’s four occupants got out, drew firearms, shot at the group of friends before returning to their car and driving away.
Patrick died on the scene while his friends were taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope for treatment.
Mohammed, 23, of Cunupia, succumbed to his injuries hours after being admitted at hospital. Tannis and James remained warded in stable condition up to late yesterday.
Several hours later, Randy “Grimey” Alexander was shot dead at a friend’s home at Farm Road, Diego Martin.
Police said around 9.30 pm, Alexander was liming with a friend in her front porch. The woman went inside briefly and was startled by a volley of gunshots. When she returned outside she found Alexander lying unconscious with several gunshot wounds.
Alexander, who had to have one of his legs amputated after being shot several years ago, died while being transported to the St James District Hospital.
Shortly before midnight on Friday, police were summoned to the scene of another murder in Central Trinidad.
Kareem Gomes, of Jade Drive, Edinburgh 500, was liming with a neighbour in his porch when a gunman walked by the house and fired several gunshots before running away.
Gomes was shot several times and died on the scene, while his female friend escaped unscathed.
Investigators believe that Gomes’ murder may be linked to Patrick and Mohammed’s shooting earlier that evening.
Meanwhile, police yesterday identified this weekend’s fifth murder victim, as Douglas Eley, of Acono Road, Maracas, St Joseph. His body was found in a car in Curepe on Saturday.
Police said residents of Brunton Road, off Riverside Road, Curepe, contacted them after they noticed a strange Nissan station wagon parked in the community.
When police arrived they found the victim who had several gunshot wounds in the back-seat. Investigators believe that the vehicle may have been stolen, used in the victim’s murder and then abandoned in the community as no one reported hearing gunshots.