(Trinidad Express) A three-year-old Venezuelan girl was grazed by a bullet on Tuesday night when gunmen ambushed and killed her father in Arima.
Police said that around 7 p.m., officers from the Northern Division Task Force were on mobile patrol when they received a report about gunshots being heard on O’Meara Road, Arima.
When they arrived at the scene, they saw a black Nissan Almera motor car parked near the corner of O’Meara Road and Orchard Street.
When officers walked towards the car, they found the bullet-riddled body of Venezuelan Gabriel Ernesto, 28.
His young daughter was in the car, crying and with blood streaming from a wound to the right side of her forehead.
Officers placed her in their vehicle, following which they contacted other officers from the Region Two Homicide Bureau and the Crime Scene Unit.
Police told the Express the child was taken to the Arima Hospital, and later after she had been stabilised was moved to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex Paediatric Ward, Mt Hope, where she remained up to last night.
Her family could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Police did not immediately have a motive for Ernesto’s murder but suspect it may have been gang related.
The murder toll for the year so far stood at 34 up to last night while the toll on this date last year was 42.
