An aspiring disc jockey and reserved national cricketer was killed on Saturday night as he and others were demolishing a stage opposite the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception along Independence Square, Port-of-Spain on Saturday night.
According to police, Lorenzo John, 20, the son of a police officer, was employed as a cook at Kentucky Fried Chicken Independence Square, fastfood outlet was loading a truck with others around 9.30 pm when a car pulled up behind him and a gunman emerged and began shooting, hitting John three times, once in the back, chest and forearm.
The shooter ran towards George Street, eyewitnesses reported. Officers on patrol along Charlotte Street, alerted by the gunshots, responded immediately and saw the suspect running away but he eluded capture after running through the Duncan Street Plannings.
Police said the driver of the car also escaped. Speaking with the media at their Mango Alley, Trou Macacque home yesterday, John’s father, Lawrence John, said his son was an independent self-motivated young man who was killed because the shooter’s aim was not good.
John, a police officer attached to the Court and Process Branch, said his son was off-duty from work on Saturday and was hired along with others to help demolish the stage following an open air concert help by the church. “He was an avid cricketer and footballer. He wasn’t involved in anything. He don’t smoke.
“The only thing is he liked to dress go and lime. He liked to play music. That was his thing because he used to dj.
“All his friends, everybody from school who he used to play cricket with in shock right now because the type of person he was he never used to interfere with anybody he never used to do anybody anything. This is coming as a real blow to us,” John said.
The father of two said he was doubtful that the killer took his son’s life as some sort of misguided revenge because of he is police officer.
John added: “You know I hear a lot about this and I see a lot of it, but for it to hit home like this is really hard. For me things really getting out of hand and a lot of things have to change for the country to come back to the way it was once before. And it is not just the police, it involves parents, churches and schools.”
In an unrelated killing, police were alerted around 2.30 pm, yesterday by residents of La Resource Road, Laventille after several gunshots were heard. The residents later saw a man lying on his back with a portion of his neck blown away. He had several other gunshot injuries. Residents told police the man was not from their area as up to press time his identify was not revealed.
The victim was wearing a white t-shirt and black jeans.