Two men were shot dead in El Dorado a little over an hour of each other on Monday night.
A third man was shot dead in Tobago, taking the murder toll there to ten for the year.
Police said around 8.30 pm at St Cecelia Road, Tunapuna, residents reported hearing gunshots and later found the 24-year-old victim, Shaquille Gerry, lying in the roadway. Gerry, a tattoo artist, of Ramkhelawan Trace, St Joseph, was pronounced dead on the scene by a District Medical Officer (DMO).
While at the scene of Gerry’s murder, police officers responded to another shooting which took place less than a kilometre away.
In that incident 19-year-old Aikido Irvin, of College Road, El Dorado, was walking near to his home when he was attacked by a gunman who shot him several times.
However, Irvin’s attacker had already fled the scene by the time police had arrived.
Police had not determined if both murders were connected, up to late yesterday.
In an interview at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, Gerry’s relatives said that he was visiting his girlfriend in El Dorado when he was killed.
“He used to go by this girl in El Dorado and he was going there when he was killed. I don’t know why they killed him because he wasn’t in nothing,” Gerry’s father, Richard, said.
He stated his son was living in the United States but would regularly visit Trinidad and stay for lengthy periods.
“He was talented. He could draw, he could trim and he could do other things. He just didn’t like staying in one place,” his father said.
Irvin’s mother, Hazel Blake, said her son was not a criminal and could not think of any reason why he was killed. Irvin’s mother said her son dropped out of school over a year ago.
She said she saw him moments before the shooting when she was on her way home from work and he asked to borrow her phone.
“He was on the block and he asked me to borrow my phone. I said he was always behind this phone thing and leave the people girl child alone,” she said.
Detectives from the Region Two Homicide Bureau are continuing investigations.
In Tobago, police identified the victim as Rondell Campbell of Mason Hall. He was killed was walking along the road near his home on Monday night.
Campbell was taken to the Scarborough General Hospital but died while being treated.
Police said they believe he was a victim of robbery as his gold chain was missing.
The latest murders have taken the toll to 422 for the year.