Two murders, one hour apart in Laventille

An unemployed man and a father of three were gunned down in two separate shooting incidents on Saturday night. Another murder in Tunapuna pushed the murder toll to five in just four days. Police investigators described the first death as gang related and the second as a robbery. The first murder occurred around 8 pm at St Barb’s Road, Laventille. Reports revealed that Kysea Mc Dowell,  alias “Antics” who lived at Chinapoo Village, Morvant, with his girlfriend visited relatives at Laventille each day. The 26-year-old man was walking along St Barb’s Road to get a taxi to take him to Morvant when a gunman snuck up from behind and fired eight shots at him. As he slumped to the ground, the killer fired the final shot to the head of Mc Dowell killing him instantly.

His bloodstained body remained lying on the ground for more than one hour before it was removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Police investigators described that killing as gang related. Residents of St Barb’s told Newsday that they are fed up with the senseless killings in the area and feel that the authorities seem incompetent in dealing with the situation. Relatives of Mc Dowell said that they had no comment to make on the murder. However, a friend of the family said that Mc Dowell recently got a job at National Fisheries at Sea Lots and he was “a good person in his own way.” One hour later Samuel King, 53, a mason and father of three of Mulrain Road, Laventille, left his home to purchase “Dinner Mints” at a nearby shop for his wife. On his return from the shop King witnessed a group of men gambling.

He also observed the gamblers being robbed by a gunman and his accomplice. As King turned to walk away he was called out by the gunman to stop. King refused and was shot three times. He died minutes later. Almaider Pope, the common-law wife of King said that when she heard the three shots she ran out of the house and was alerted by a neighbour that her husband was dead. The weeping woman said that she and King had planned to get married in October later this year and she is now unsure how she will be able to take care of her three children. She called on the police to find the killers and wished for the same fate to fall upon the killer. “They took an innocent life and I hope that they too will be gunned down the same way that my husband was killed,” said Pope.