Shooting, chopping in Beetham, Laventille

Officers of the Besson Street Police Station are investigating two reports in which one man was shot and the other beaten and chopped in two separate incidents. Both victims are warded at ward 21 of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Reports revealed that around 9.45 am yesterday, Dereck Hackette, 24, of 24th Street Beetham Estate, a CEPEP labourer, was walking along Trou Macaque Road, Laventille, when he was approached by a man armed with a gun. Hackette was ordered to lie in a drain and the gunman fired two shots striking him to the stomach and left hand.

He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was treated and warded. Lerry Guillard,50, of Laventille Road, Laventille reported to the Besson Street Police that he was at Sugra Trace, Laventille, around 9.15 am, picking tamarind when he was appraoched by a group of men who began beating him. He was chopped on the left thigh and chest. Guillard was treated and warded at the POSGH.