PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Police have detained a 29-year-old man, whom they say is a suspect in the mass shootings in the west of the island last weekend, resulting in the deaths of four people and injuries to several others.
Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher has condemned the ‘senseless” killings of four people during a shooting incident in the Cocorite district, and the police said that the suspect was held at the Piarco International Airport on Sunday night as he was preparing to board a flight to the United States.
Media reports said that the suspect was then taken to his home, where a search warrant was executed. At the time, a 33-year-old man, said to be a relative of the suspect, was also occupying the premises.
The reports said that the police seized five rounds of 9mm ammunition in the room of the suspect.
“In the room occupied by the 33-year-old, police seized eight rounds of 5.56mm ammunition in the room. The rounds were said to be the same type as those found on the scene of the Cocorite incident in which eight people were also injured. As a result of the seizures, both men were arrested,” the Trinidad Express newspaper reported Tuesday.
The two suspects are to be questioned in connection with the murders of 36-year-old Jonathan Osmond, Shaquille Ottley, 22, Antonio Jack, 57, and 31-year-old Sadiki Ottley.
The police said that the 12 people were gathered on the eastern side of a building near midnight when a dark-colored motor vehicle approached them.
“It is alleged that two armed men then exited the vehicle and opened fire on the group before returning to the vehicle and escaping. The eight wounded victims, ages 19 to 39, all of the area, were taken to the St. James Medical Centre for treatment and then transferred to another institution,” the police statement said.
This is the second mass shooting here within a two-month month. On March 16, gunmen shot and killed five people in East Port of Spain after they drove into drove onto the Harpe Place compound and fired upon residents before driving off.
No one has been arrested for that crime.
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