An 18-year-old construction worker was shot in the head and killed yesterday when a gunman opened fire on the house where the teenager went to purchase marijuana.
According to police reports, Salim Gonzales, was working on his grandmother’s home and left to buy the illegal drugs from a man at a nearby house when he was killed.
Police believe the intended target was the drug dealer who was shot in the shoulder. Police said Gonzales was at Irving Mc Williams Street, Phase Six, La Horquetta, around 10.20 am when he was killed.
The other man, whose identity is withheld as he is yet to be charged with any criminal offence, was shot in the right shoulder and is warded in a stable condition at the Arima Health Facility.
Gonzales, originally from Ramkhelawan Trace, St Joseph, would have celebrated his 19th birthday on December 26, his father, Gregory Gonzales, told the T&T Guardian in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said his son, who was shot in the right temple, frequented the area as he visited his grandmother and became acquainted with people from the area. He said his son was arrested for criminal activities in the past but nothing that would warrant him to be murdered.
In an unrelated incident homicide detectives are also investigating the shooting death of a D’Abadie man on Sunday. According to police reports, around 3 pm on Sunday, police were called after reports of gunshots were heard at Sunbeam Street, Red Hill, D’Abadie. Police said two men ambushed Maurice Clifford and another man who were doing renovation work on a house near Clifford’s home.
Police said the 42-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Centre. No motive was given for his killing
The two murders as well as that of 64-year-old Jankey Persad who was shot dead at his home at Enterprise, Chaguanas, on Sunday, three days after Keron “Panther” James was murdered in the said house, took the murder toll to 382 for the year.
For the same period last year, 362 people had been murdered.