Six murdered in T&T

(Trinidad Guardian) Killers ended 2016 with a bang with six murders being recorded in four separate incidents across the country between Friday and yesterday

A seventh man was reported to be brain-dead following one of the shootings.

Even before the killing spree, however, the murder toll for 2016 was the highest this country has seen in six years.

The murder toll was 461 up to yesterday.

Among the murders was the shooting death of four men in Beverly Hills, Laventille, which resulted in senior officers of the Port-of-Spain Division calling an emergency meeting yesterday.

The bloodshed began around 10.40 pm on Friday when a teenager was stabbed to death following an argument over money.

Dead is 18-year-old Zion Murray.

According to reports, Murray, of Jack Terrace in Enterprise, was at School Lane in Enterprise, when he had an altercation with another man over money. The man stabbed Murray in the chest and ran away. Murray died on the spot.

The second incident took place around 11 pm on Friday in Caparo. Officers of the Brasso Seco Police Station responded to a man lying motionless along the Caparo Valley Road in the vicinity of the breeding unit. PCs Ramoutar and Badall found a man of mixed descent with a low hairstyle approximately six feet tall lying face down. He had a gunshot wound to the left side of his head.

District Medical Officer Dr Birjah visited the scene and ordered the removal of the body to the San Fernando Mortuary pending a post mortem to be conducted at the St James Forensic Science Centre.

After boasting a significant drop in killings in the Port-of-Spain Division this year, four men were murdered in Laventille on Friday night.

One of the four dead men was described by police as a gang leader.

He was identified as Sherwin “Chookoo” Balthazar.

Balthazar, who owned a car wash in Maloney, was gunned down at Beverly Hills around 11 pm.

A couple hours later, gunshots were heard in the area, and three men were killed.

Officers believe the shooting of the three men was a revenge for Balthazar’s death.

The three men were not identified by police yesterday.

Another man, nicknamed “Dirtsman”, was shot in the eye and was warded at hospital up to late yesterday.