Cops increase night patrols in Laventille

PORT-OF-SPAIN police have strengthened night patrols following shootings in Laventille last weekend which left one man dead and another hospitalised in unsatisfactory condition.

Police sources told Newsday in the wake of the murders of Neil “Big Neil” Lewis and Jamaat-al-Muslimeen member Mark Guerra, surveillance and patrols were increased as police feared an upsurge in gang violence and revenge shootings. The fact that no major murder spree has occurred in Laventille since the Lewis and Guerra murders, have been attributed to surveillance and patrol work. However, two weekend incidents which left one man dead and another wounded, have led to an increase in patrols of the area.

Sources also said these patrols are part of the second stage of Commissioner of Police Hilton Guy’s three-month crime crackdown. Commissioner Guy plans to have police focus more attention to removing illegal firearms from the community during the second stage which continues until June. In the weekend murder, Dexter Charles, 24, of Laventille Road, East Dry River, was fatally shot while liming outside the Witco Desperado Pan Theatre on Saturday night. Charles succumbed to his injuries at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. An autopsy  yesterday at the Forensic Sciences Centre, confirmed that he died as a result of shock and haemorrhage consistent with a single gunshot to the back.

In the other weekend incident, a Laventille man was shot in the neck and seriously wounded while walking along a road in Straker Village, Laventille, on Sunday. According to police reports, at around 9 pm Andy Allen, 24, a labourer who lives in Picton, was walking in Straker Village when he was struck in the neck. He sought assistance at the home of a resident who telephoned the police and took the bleeding man to hospital. Allen underwent emergency surgery and up to late yesterday remained warded in an unsatisfactory condition. Visiting the scene were Besson Street police officers led by Cpl Henry Dann.