Store owner shot dead in PoS

A 35-year-old store owner was shot dead while offloading sneakers at his store, Sneakers Zone, at Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday. Ryan Darsat, alias “Cachow,” of Don Miguel Road, San Juan, was with an employee at 1 am, when a car with unknown occupants pulled up and began firing at Darsat. As Darsat slumped to the ground, the lone eyewitness to the killing fled the scene. Reports revealed that the killer shot Darsat twice in the neck, almost severing his head from the body. Shortly after the murder, a passerby saw the body lying at the side of the road at the corner of Queen and Henry Streets, Port-of-Spain. A party of police officers led by Sgt Corbette of the Homicide Bureau and Sgt Bridgenarine Chattoo of the Besson Street Police Station went to the scene with a district medical officer.

The body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Investigators told Newsday that Darsat returned to the country on Wednesday night and headed straight to the store to offload some goods. Police told Newsday that Darsat was well known to the police, but he had reportedly mended his ways. The dead man’s relatives refused to be interviewed when approached outside the Forensic Science Centre yesterday, and at his Don Miguel Road, home no one ventured outside. However, at Sneakers Zone, employees of the dead man described him as “a cool and friendly person.” They also said his store had been broken into several times and Darsat himself was a victim of robbery. Investigators believe that his killing was a planned execution. Darsat is the 385th person to be murdered for the year to date.