Gyasi Gonzales
Source: Trinidad Express
PAIN: Avril Dowell, left, is consoled by a relative after her son, Mikhail (inset), was killed on Tuesday night at Priest Hill in St Joseph. -Photo: ABRAHAM DIAZ
FOUR more men have been murdered as the spate of violent crimes continued across the country, pushing the toll to 408 as of last evening.
And although the police have lumped all these killings as "gang related homicides", the relatives of the dead offered other motives.
The first murder occurred in St Joseph.
The victim, Mikhail Dowell, 18, was chopped to death just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
According to the police, Dowell was liming with some friends at Priest Hill, which is off King Street in St Joseph, when they were approached by another group of young men.
Police said there was an argument and Dowell was grabbed by a man and chopped on the neck repeatedly.
The man who chopped Dowell and the group he came with then ran off and remained at large up to last night. One of Dowell's friends held the young man's head but his wounds were so severe he quickly bled to death.
The St Joseph police were called, along with Dowell's family.
Yesterday, his mother, Avril Dowell, said that "as far as I know", the men who killed her son came looking for someone else.
"It's a case of mistaken identity," she said.
The police said they did not believe the killer really intended to kill Dowell.
And around 8 p.m. at Mason Street Extension in Diego Martin, Jahkimo Brewster, 28, was liming with friends when a man crept out of a bushy gully and opened fire on the group.
Brewster and another man, 20-year-old Dillon Rodney, were hit. Brewster ran a short distance, collapsed and died. Rodney was taken to hospital where he was treated.
The Express met two female relatives of Brewster yesterday morning at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, but they would only confirm the correct spelling of his name, nothing else.
In another incident, Leandro Baptiste, 24, was killed around 9.30 a.m. in Woodbrook. He was employed with the Port of Spain City Corporation as well as SM Jaleel.
According to eyewitnesses, Baptiste and a group of city corporation employees were on a pavement rebuilding jobsite at Luis Street, when a Nissan Wingroad driven by someone he knew stopped near the site.
A man who spoke to the Express near the scene yesterday said a man came out the vehicle and walked towards Baptiste. Both men spoke and the killer walked off.
Just before getting into his car, however, the man turned around and walked back towards Baptiste. He pulled him close, embraced him and told him something. He then withdrew a pistol and shot Baptiste in the abdomen. As Baptiste fell, the killer fired more shots until the gun was empty. He then cooly walked back to his car, got in and calmly drove off.
When approached by the Express yesterday, workers on the jobsite claimed they knew nothing.
"Apologies rastaman but we eh know nutting," said one man.
Some of Baptiste's relatives later arrived on the scene. They confirmed that Baptiste had been threatened.
When asked why, one of his relatives said, "Jealousy, they was jealous of him."
The fourth murder occurred at 11 a.m. yesterday.
Police said they knew the victim, Duane "Bad Jesus" Joseph, very well. They said Joseph was on Duke Street, Port of Spain, when he was attacked by a gunman. Joseph was still able to run to Nelson Street where he collapsed. He was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital but died before he got there.
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