For the second time in just over a year, a Carenage family is dealing with the murder of one of their sons. Shaquille LaVende, 20, of L’Anse Mitan, who shot dead on yesterday, just 13 months after his brother, Shastri, was killed in similar circumstances.
Police said LaVende was shot several times about the body. The incident occurred at around 11.35 am, just after LaVende dropped off a woman on the street. Residents who heard several loud explosions immediately called the police.
The body was viewed by a district medical officer who ordered its removal to the Forensic Science Centre for an autopsy today.
T&T Guardian reporter Jensen LaVende, the victim’s cousin, said he was shocked to see photos of the murder scene on social media.
“Having seen so many victims of murder on social media and to see him was shocking. I could understand the trauma people go through,” he said.
“That I knew him, to find out like this was a little hard. I don’t know how I am feeling sad, I regret not spending time. His parents are still getting over the death of his brother,” he said.
In September last year, the bullet-riddled body of LaVende’s brother, Shastri, was found in a vehicle at Enterprise Street, in Enterprise. Homicide officers are continuing investigations into the latest murder.
In another incident, just as police identified the body of a man found floating in the Gulf of Paria, another corpse washed ashore in Granville yesterday. The first body is that of Wasim Nabbie 21, a produce vendor of La Romaine.
The other corpse washed ashore at on Point Coco Beach, Granville, shortly after 3 pm and up to late yesterday, investigators were still at the scene up to late yesterday.
Nabbie and another man were reported missing to the St Joseph police last Wednesday. Their vehicle was found abandoned at King’s Wharf San Fernando.
Nabbie's body was first spotted by the crew of the water taxi HSC Trini Flash in the anchorage area off the Port of Pointe-a-Pierre around 4 pm on Friday.
Coast guard and air guard search teams were sent to the area but the body was not found. Around 10.14 am Saturday, Petrotrin officials spotted the body near a platform in Trinmar Brighton Marine Fields, off La Brea at at around 2.05 pm, coast guard personnel retrieved the body several miles off the Trinmar Jetty in Point Fortin. It was handed over to Sgt Darryl Corey of the Region III Homicide Bureau.
The partially decomposed body was clad in a pair of brown boxer shorts and was hog tied with a cloth wrapped around the head and held together by duct tape. Investigators believe the victim was murdered.