A 33-year-old contractor and reputed gang leader was murdered near his Diego Martin home yesterday.
According to reports, shortly after 9 am Curtis “Birdman” Smith was walking along La Puerta Avenue, Diego Martin, when a Nissan AD wagon pulled alongside him. Two of the occupants got out and shot Smith several times before returning to their vehicle and driving away. Smith died on the scene.
The incident occured hours after Smith reportedly assaulted a man in the community. A short clip of the incident was recorded by someone using a cellphone and shared on social media service Whatsapp following his murder.
The video depicted Smith standing over and kicking a man who was lying on the ground in the car park of a Diego Martin business. Smith was dressed in the same white T-shirt and pair of black jeans he was eventually killed in.
However, homicide detectives said they were yet to link the incident in the video with Smith’s murder. But they described him as a major suspect in gang-related activity in the community.
As police and crime scene investigators were processing the crime scene yesterday, Smith’s wife Kareema Gonzales attempted to walk under the caution tape cordoning off the area to get a closer look at her husband’s body.
“Somebody go pay,” an emotional Gonzales screamed as she came within metres of her husband body covered in blood-soaked clothing.
Gonzales was restrained by police who were fearful she might unwittingly contaminate the crime scene. The move prompted the intervention of her relatives, who engaged in a minor confrontation with police before being expelled from the crime scene.
Speaking briefly with media personnel afterwards, Smith’s relatives, who asked to remain anonymous, denied his alleged gang affiliation and claimed he was targeted because he had received Government infrastructure projects in the community.
“He was a businessman. People in the area was just jealous of him because of contracts he was getting,” one woman said.
An autopsy will be performed on Smith’s body at the Forensic Science Centre in St James today.
Homicide detectives are continuing investigations.
In an unrelated incident, a watchman was found dead at his work place at Rio Grande Trace, Matura, yesterday.
Ricardo Sorzano, 31, of Melajo Road, Vega de Oropouche, an employee with the Rio Grande Quarry in Matura, was found dead on the upper floor of a building at job site by three of his co-workers.
Police reported that around 7.30 am, three co-workers reported to work at the quarry and called out to Sorzano when they did not see him around. They went looking for him and later found his body with a gunshot wound to his head.
The workers contacted police and a party of officers, including Supt Nabby, ASP Revanales Insps Etienne, Ken Lutchman, Cpl De La Rosa, PCs Joseph Pamponette and Emmanuel, of Sangre Grande Police Station, and Homicide Bureau, Arouca Region II visited the scene.
District Medical Officer Dr Prince viewed the body and ordered its removal to the Sangre Grande mortuary. An autopsy is to be conducted today at the Forensic Science Centre, St James.
Investigating officers from Homicide Bureau Region I are investigating.
Police said they had no motive for the killing, which took the murder toll or the year to 303.
(With reporting by RALPH BANWARIE)