(Trinidad Express) Two teenagers who were best friends were gunned down in Bon Air Gardens, Arouca, on Tuesday night.
Residents described the killings as senseless as they insisted that the two could never be targets but “were in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
The two deceased are Olun Jones, 18, of Cuckoo Drive, Bon Air Gardens, and Anim Persad, 15, of Emerald Circular, Bon Air Gardens.
Jones, who had been a recipient of the Military Led Academic Training Programme (MiLAT), was unemployed and had been living with one of his neighbours, while Persad was a pupil of the Diego Martin Secondary School.
Police said that around 10 p.m. officers of the Arouca Police CID were on mobile patrol in the Bon Air Gardens area when they heard a volley of gunshots.
Eyewitnesses said that a car with the gunmen had been patrolling the area for several minutes prior to the shooting.
Eventually when the two teens were close to a shop, the gunmen, armed with what police believe was an AK-47 assault rifle and an AR-15 assault rifle, opened fire on the boys. Police recovered 57 spent shells.
Some of the bullets struck the shop, which blasted away pieces of concrete.
On hearing the shots, police sped over to the corner of Skylark Crescent and Emerald Circular where they found the bodies of the two teens lying near a brightly painted yellow parlour known in the area as Miss Patsy’s Shop.
Persad was found face down on a pavement near the shop in a pool of blood while Jones was found in the doorway of the shop. He was still alive and gasping for breath when officers picked him up and took him to the Arima Hospital where he was administered emergency treatment but by 10.30 p.m. he died.
Officers of the Region Two Homicide Bureau, Crime Scene Unit and more officers from the Arouca Police Station arrived and examined the scene.
