T&T man shot dead in reprisal killing

(Trinidad Express) Violence continued yesterday morning in Laventille, with the shooting death of a 24-year-old man whom the police described as “well known to them”.

Officers described the country’s latest murder as a reprisal for Wednesday night’s gang activity, which resulted in two houses and a car being torched in the Beverly Hills district.

Police said around 9.45 a.m., the victim, Jervon Williams, 22, of Straker Village, Laventille, was walking through an alley off La Resource Street, Laventille, when a gunman approached him and opened fire. Williams was hit seven times about the body and died on the spot.

Police said he was the cousin of another man described as a gang member, who was shot in the shoulder on Wednesday night during the gang attack in Beverly Hills, Laventille.

Police said Williams had spent the night at the home of a female friend, but because he was in “an opposing” gang territory, he was killed.

A team of officers from the Besson Street CID, along with the Homicide Bureau, visited the scene yesterday morning.

While on the scene earlier that day, officers said they were not too sure of Williams’ identity, but he appeared “familiar” to them as he looked like one of the men they had detained, photographed and fingerprinted during the recently concluded State of Emergency.

By 11 a.m., officers confirmed it was, indeed, Williams.

The murder toll stood at 330 up to press time last night, according to an Express tally.