TSTT worker shot dead outside club

A TSTT employee became the country’s lastest murder victim when he was shot dead during a failed robbery attempt on Cipriani Boulevard in Port-of-Spain early yesterday morning. The victim, Darren Baksh, of El Carmen Road, Arima, was shot in his stomach when he refused to hand over his wallet  to a gunman who had broken into his car. He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he died. Baksh, along with a group of friends, left the 51 Degrees club at around 4.30 am yesterday but had to shelter from the rain for a short while. He opened his car doors remotely before approaching the vehicle and when he entered the car, he was confronted by a lone armed gunman who demanded his wallet.

Baksh’s female companion was about to enter the car and the bandit ordered her to leave. She noticed the gun as she left and alerted the police. She subsequently returned to the vehicle and found Baksh slumped inside with a bullet wound to his stomach. His wallet was missing. When Newsday visited the victim’s family at El Carmen Road, his father John Baksh said he was not seeking revenge but would leave his son’s killers in the hands of God. The murdered man’s mother, Lenore, supported her husband and added that the nation’s youths needed prayer. Baksh recently graduated from UWI with a degree in Engineering. Relatives described him as a wonderful young man who did not smoke, or drink and seldom partied. His murder was one of several incidents which marred the day yesterday.

In another incident, Morvant police are investigating the circumstances under which Marlon David, 23, was shot in his chest. David is in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit of the PoSGH. Besson Street police are investigating another incident in which Nigel Thomas, 39, was shot in his back and neck and Andrew Holder was shot in his chest and stabbed in his head. At the same time, a family at Gittens Avenue, Maraval, was held up at gunpoint and robbed of  cash and jewelry around midnight on Saturday. They were they forced to go to an ATM machine in the area where they were made to withdraw cash from their accounts.

Carenage police are investigating the drowning of Fyzabad resident Dave Bouchan, 25, at midday yesterday at Chagville Beach, Chaguaramas. At around midday, Bouchan, who was at the People’s National Movement (PNM) Convention at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre, decided to take a swim at the nearby Chagville beach. He dived in but did not surface. Following frantic searches the body  was recovered. An autopsy will be done at the Forensic Science Centre today.