(Trinidad Guardian) Investigators believe the broad daylight murders of two men who were gunned down while in the car park of South Park Mall, in San Fernando on Thursday, was a well-planned execution.
Malik Straker, also known as M1 and Molly, 31, of Wallerfield, Arima, and Joel Chambers, 29, of Morvant had no way of escaping when gunmen opened fire on a silver AD wagon in which they seated around noon.
While police are still trying to determine a motive, police said Straker was a gang member, had pending court matters for several serious crimes, and had information that could have assisted them in solving at least four murders.
Initial police reports stated that around midday, the men were seated in the front seats of the wagon when a Volkswagen Jetta pulled up.
No eye-witnesses have yet come forward. Police believe occupants, with high powered guns, came out and opened fire on the vehicle—riddling the vehicle with holes.
Amateur footage circulating on social media shows people peeping through the bullet holes in the windows before the police arrived and trying to figure out how many bodies were inside the wagon.
Several other vehicles were in the car park, but there were no reports of damage to the other vehicles or injury to anyone else.
A man who was parked about two cars away, told reporters he had left his car about 10 minutes before the shooting. He said he got to the mall around 11.45 am and went to the gym.
He said they heard the loud explosions in the gym but he did not think they were gunshots.
“We heard it in the gym but we did not know that it was bullets, most of us thought it was just a tire that had burst, until, I was next to the mirror and I see a guy running along the side of South Park screaming bullets, bullets,” he said.
Grateful that he had left his car before the shooting took place, he said, “I was surprised because is not like is in the night or is not around people, is in South Park, around so much people. And, apparently no one saw it but that’s just so hard to believe because it is a pretty densely populated area, people working in the stores, people going to the gym in and out always hustling, walking all around the place. Is more of a shock than anything that people so brazen.”
He had to wait about two hours before he could leave the car park because the police were processing the scene.
Police believe that Straker had vital information about last year’s murders of Kareem Walters, also known as Pinto Boss and Crime Boss of Pinto Road in Arima, Gabriel Mitchell, 25, of Pinto Road, Kelvin Gordon, 40, of Arima, and Marcus “Papa” Thomas of Valencia.
Police told Guardian Media that Straker also had pending matters at the Arima and Sangre Grande Magistrates’ Court for kidnapping for ransom, false imprisonment, attempted murder, possession of ammunition and firearm, robbery with aggravation, malicious wounding and common assault.
