PAULA LINDO AND LAUREL WILLIAMS
A police sergeant is among five people who were killed on Saturday following a gang-related shooting at Harpe Place in East Port of Spain. Three of the victims died on the scene and two at the Port of Spain General Hospital. Three others were taken to hospital with gunshot injuries. Police told Newsday that the victims were liming with a group of people at 10.55 am near the entrance of the Housing Development Corporation apartment complex, off Observatory Street, when a car drove into the compound and the occupants fired a volley of gunshots.
A video by one resident showed people scampering around the compound and screaming. Video footage circulating on social media shows a man lying motionless between two cars in the car park and another victim nearby. Scores of residents and onlookers gathered and appeared to be in shock over the horrific incident.
The people who died on the scene were Rudolph James, of Beverly Hills; Randy Graves, 32, of Oxford Street, Port of Spain; and Sgt Larry Phillip, of Observatory Street. Phillip was attached to the police band. Pete Noray, 50, of Bath Street, Port of Spain, and Devon Jack, of Charford Court, on Charlotte Street, died at the hospital. The three injured are craftsman Richard Pierre, 44, of Charford Court, who received an injury to his lower back; Wendell Primus, unemployed, of Harpe Place, who was injured in the left leg, and Akina Thomas, 35, of Harpe Place, who was shot in the right shoulder.
Police and soldiers were deployed to the scene as angry residents hurled abuses at the officers. The mood of the residents remained angry several hours after the shooting, initially chasing away media personnel and later refusing to speak to them. Some said they were afraid to say anything.
Crime Scene Unit investigators recovered a variety of shell casings, including 7.62, 5.56, and 9mm calibre shells. The shell casings were found close to the entrance of the compound, but the victims were found in various places including in the courtyard, and the car park. The officer’s body was found under a staircase.
The killings bring the number of murders for 2024 to 121, equalling the 2023 figure of 121. In 2022, there were 113 murders in the same period, according to information from the Homicide Bureau. There were five other murders between Friday and Saturday, in five separate incidents across Trinidad. (see page 6)
Head of the Homicide Bureau Snr Supt Rishi Singh, who was at the scene, said the police could not give a motive for the multiple murders. “We will analyze everything and come up with the probable cause in a while, but we do believe it’s gang-related at this time. There are things we’re not prepared to put out there because we have to verify. I’m not going to say reprisal, but certainly gang-related.”
[caption id="attachment_1070645" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Undertakers remove one of the victims at Harpe Place, Observatory Street, Port of Spainon March 16.[/caption]
Asked about the absence of the static patrols, Singh
