(Trinidad Express) Two men who were believed to have gunned down a rival gang member last week met a similar fate early yesterday morning when they were ambushed and shot dead by two gunmen.
Late yesterday around 3.30 p.m., another man, this time from Beetham Gardens, was gunned down near his home in Third Street while a soldier who was standing next to the man was also shot.
The first victim yesterday was Mark Joseph, alias “Teets”.
Joseph, 26, lived alone in Mahogany Drive, Malabar, Arima.
Police said around 5 a.m., his landlord heard several gunshots and rushed out to investigate but walked out just in time to see two men running away from the apartment building.
The landlord then investigated Joseph’s open door. When he walked in, he found his tenant dead on a mattress with several gunshots about his body.
He had been shot at close range.
Police said the two gunmen ran off and went in search of another victim.
Kerron Decarreau, 22, also of Mahogany Drive, was standing outside his home when the gunmen approached him and opened fire, killing him almost instantly.
Residents heard the gunshots and called the police.
A team from the Malabar Police Station, as well as the Arima Police Station, arrived on the scene.
The bodies were moved to the Port of Spain mortuary after the scene had been examined by officers of the Homicide (Region 2) Bureau.
Police said the likely motive behind both shootings was a reprisal for last Thursday’s murder of another man, Jeremy James, aged 22.
Police said last Thursday afternoon, James, of Ackberalli Trace, Malabar, was shot dead as he drove past the Larry Gomes Stadium in Malabar. It is believed Joseph and Decarreau were responsible for those shootings.
Investigators said they expected reprisal murders for the killings of Joseph and Decarreau.
Later yesterday, the fourth murder for the day occurred.
The victim, Kevin Brown, 24, was killed on the spot when he was ambushed by two gunmen as he and another man, Lance Corporal Che Markie Jackman of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, were standing near a shop located between Second and Third Streets, Beetham Gardens.
Police said around 3.30 p.m., as the two men stood near each other, two gunmen stood a short distance away and opened fire.
Police said Brown was the intended target that afternoon but Jackman was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Emerold Brown, the victim’s father, spoke to reporters yesterday and said about three months ago, his son returned from Tobago where he had been living with relatives since he was 14.
He had a girlfriend and a child there.
Brown told reporters he did not understand why his son was murdered and called on the police to do “something” about the murders in Beetham Gardens as he believed gang activity had resumed in the area.
Jackman is currently in stable condition at the Port of Spain General Hospital.
Another murder in Diego Martin yesterday meant that four people were killed in about 11 hours yesterday.
Homicide Bureau are continuing investigations.
