(Trinidad Express) An entertainer from Tobago was among three people shot and killed at a house in Laventille yesterday.
The 2021 murder toll now totals 412 while the corresponding toll at this time last year was 370.
Police said two of the victims — Javon Charles and Josiah Francis, both aged 17—and Tobago singer Anthony Bacchus, 32, were shot dead at Charles’ Desperlie Crescent home.
Francis and Bacchus were sitting on a bench opposite the front gate of the house around 11.30 a.m. when a Nissan B-15 Sentra with two men pulled up.
Both men got out and immediately opened fire on Francis and Bacchus, killing them on the spot.
The gunmen then walked past Charles’ grandmother who a relative said pretended to be dead, found Charles and opened fire on him killing him on the spot as well.
The gunmen then sped off in the car.
Neighbours who heard the gunshots contacted the police and officers from the Besson Street Police Station and Inter Agency Task Force visited the scene.
The Express arrived on the scene approximately one hour later.
A relative who asked not to be named was seen washing blood off a bench. Another, who also asked not to be named, however told the Express he was in his bedroom asleep because his sister’s birthday was on Sunday “so we had a little lime for her up Arima”.
He added that he had too much to drink and called in sick at work yesterday.
He said they were packing leftover alcohol from the birthday lime in their kitchen when the gunmen struck.
“So my nephew was toting back in the items with two of his friends and as I stood in my bedroom a gunman just walked in the house about 11.30 a.m; that’s when everything took place,” he said.
“Them look at my mother sitting down in the gallery and she is aged 70 and we just start to hear shots just so, just so,” he added.
He said when his mother heard the gunshots she dropped to the ground and pretended to be dead while the gunman looked at him but left him alone.
“When I open my door and I say what is going on here…the gunman see me and well by that time my nephew was already on the ground and the two other men were down on the ground too,” he said.
Asked why the three were attacked he said while Javon Charles is known in the area, Francis and Bacchus who were both from Tobago were not and this triggered the attack.
He said both Francis and Bacchus had met Charles during a (MiLAT) Military-Led Academic Training Programme and he asked them to come to Trinidad for the birthday party.
