TWO shooting incidents on Sunday evening – one in Gonzales, Belmont and the other at the compound of the Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) – have left four men dead and two others wounded.

However, while police sources and relatives told Newsday four men were killed, the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) issued a press release on Monday afternoon saying three people were shot dead and three others injured.

Police reports said a group of men was liming near a school in Gonzales, Belmont after a game of football. Without warning, gunmen arrived in a car and began shooting. One man was killed and several others injured.

The injured men were taken to the PoSGH, but moments after their arrival, masked gunmen also reached the hospital in a car. While relatives of the wounded men and medics were trying to get the victims into the hospital's Accident and Emergency (A&E) department, the gunmen got out of their car and opened fire.

Three men were killed at the hospital and another man was shot and wounded.

However, the NWRHA release said on Monday that three people were killed. The release did not identify these victims by name and also did not identify those who had survived. The release said five individuals were initially brought to PoSGH for treatment with two being pronounced dead on arrival.

It said another victim was shot dead outside the A&E compound by the gunmen, while a relative of this victim was also shot but survived.

Newsday contacted police for clarification on whether it was four or three people killed, but up to press time, had received no response.

At the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Monday, Newsday met with members of four families who claimed their loved ones: Jayden Reyes, 21; Johnathon Arjoon, 23; Kevin King, 33; and Peter Williams, 31, had been killed in the Gonzales incident.

[caption id="attachment_1087524" align="alignnone" width="768"] SHOT DEAD: Jayden Reyes. -[/caption]

The police have since classified the shooting as gang-related and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds – who spoke to reporters during an impromptu press conference at the PoSGH at 11 pm on Sunday – said the attack was targeted and no hospital staff or members of the public were injured.

“Fortunately, no one other than persons who were brought here from the original crime scene would have been further injured at the hospital. So we were relieved of the burden of additional persons as innocent bystanders being caught up,” Hinds said on Sunday night.

'My boy was in no gang'

However, the mother of one of the dead men as well as his brother – who was shot and wounded at hospital – insisted her sons were not involved in any gang.

Speaking at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Jayden Reyes’s mother fought back tears as she criticised those who suggested her son was dead because he was a gangster. She asked not to be identified.

She said Reyes, who was in his third year of medical school, and was an employee of Republic Bank where he worked in its call centre