Kidnapper’s arrest leads police to dead man

THE arrest of a so-called well-known San Juan “kidnapper” on Friday night led Besson Street police officers to the scene of a murder and the arrest of a Port-of-Spain man with a quantity of drugs, ammunition and a gun. Around 9.40 pm on Friday officers of the Besson Street Police Station were investigating  reports of a shooting incident between Nelson Street and Duncan Street, Port-of-Spain when they held a man believed to be a kidnapper, of Febeau Village, San Juan.

While there they heard gunshots and went to the nearby corner of Duke and Picadilly Streets, opposite the Don Carlos Recreation Club where they found the lifeless semi-nude bloody body of a man lying on the ground with a bullet wound to his head. Onlookers claimed they saw nothing but heard gunshots. An eyewitness said he was standing next to the man who was buying pies at the time from a nearby stall when he heard gunshots and saw the man slump to the ground. Onlookers and a passer-by claimed they did not know his name or where he lived although they believed he was a “pickpocket.” The slim built man of African descent, five feet, five inches tall, bearing a rasta-hairstyle was dressed in short brown jeans pants and a pair of sandals at the time of his killing.

Following the killing and the holding of the “kidnapper” police  went to a drug den when they stumbled upon two suspicious men. On seeing the police the men ran but one was held at Bath Street. The man was searched and a .38 revolver with six rounds of ammunition and a quantity of hand rolled ten-piece marijuana cigarettes was found on him. Police are asking anyone with information to assist them in identifying the body of the man shot while buying pies to contact them at the Besson Street Police Station. In an unrelated matter, police are investigating the circumstances under which Carl Lezama was shot earlier on Christmas Eve. According to reports around 6.15 pm Lezama, 25, was playing cards on Mentor Alley, a short distance from his home when a loud explosion was heard.

He felt a burning sensation and looked down to see blood oozing from his right leg. The injured man was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was treated and later discharged. Visiting the scenes were Ag Insp Singh, Sgt Boyce, Cpl Mercer and others.