Bloody Weekend In Trinidad

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad CMC – One person was decapitated and two others shot, as Trinidad and Tobago recorded yet another bloody weekend in its history.

Police said that the head of an unidentified man was found by a passer-by at the Santa Rosa Race Track in Arima, east of here. His body was found nearby.

Police said the man of East Indian descent appeared to be in his early 30s.

In the other incidents, police said that Ishmael Lewis, 41, was at his George Clarke Road home, south of here on Saturday night, in the company of another man and a woman, when they heard male voices at the front door saying “police!”

Immediately after, two masked men entered the house, ordered the woman into one of the bedrooms before shooting Lewis several times. The other man was also left unhurt.

Police are also investigating the death of 28-year-old  Dale Augustus, 28, of Malick, along the east-west corridor , who was also in the company of another man and a woman when three masked men entered the house and shot Augustus to death in a bedroom, leaving the other two people unhurt.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Ricardo Mohammed became the latest person killed by a police bullet this year.

Police said that Mohammed was accidentally killed when the firearm of a policeman discharged during a party in Chaguaramas, west of here on Sunday.

Media reports quoted police as saying that law enforcement authorities had just taken away some illegal drugs from three people, when one of them tried to pull the officer’s gun from holster. A struggle ensued causing the firearm to go off hitting Mohammed, who was with friends some distance away.

But others have disputed some of the police’s version saying the officer had arrested the man after finding him with the drugs in his possession, but he was not placed in handcuffs.

While escorting the man through the crowd, he escaped, causing the officer to pull out his firearm and open fire on the man. The officer missed his target and instead shot Mohammed. The escaped man still has not been caught.

The number of people killed by police so far this year is 35, while the number of murders in Trinidad and Tobago is 305 compared to 286 for the corresponding period last year.