Murder count reaches 194

"Taken from our C R I M E section.

A MAN was shot 18 times as he slept on a bed with his girlfriend and their two children at his Diego Martin home early yesterday morning.

Police sources told Newsday that when gunmen stormed the bedroom and started pumping bullets into Gregory Poon, 44, his girlfriend Melissa Stoddard, 22, hurriedly pulled the children, aged four and five, out of the room to safety. In doing this, Stoddard was shot in the leg.

According to police reports, Poon who was also known as Lennox Charles was asleep in the bedroom of his Finch Drive, River Estate, Diego Martin home at about 2 am, when gunmen burst into the house and broke down the bedroom door.

Before he could react, Poon was shot 18 times and died on his bed. The gunmen then ran out of the house and escaped, leaving behind a screaming Stoddard and the two children.

Homicide officers along with a District Medical Officer went to the scene and the body was ordered removed to the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James for an autopsy.

Stoddard was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where she was treated and warded. Relatives of the dead man said he worked in URP. And while relatives claimed Poon was not involved in crime, police said the execution was the result of gangland activities.

In an unrelated incident, a 17-year-old former student of Bourg Mulatresse Secondary School was gunned down while walking along Mt Hope Road near his home at about 2.30 pm yesterday.

Jivon Lamont’s body was found riddled with bullets in what police described as a revenge killing.

According to police reports, Lamont was liming at the home of a cousin when he left to purchase something at a nearby shop.

While walking along Mt Hope Road, several loud explosions were heard and Lamont’s body was found on the roadway by schoolchildren who were walking home.

On hearing the students’ screams, residents telephoned the police.

Kinda Perouza told Newsday she was at work when she was informed that her brother had been killed.

Staring at the body in disbelief, Perouza said her brother was “a cool person” who was well-known in the area. Lamont is murder victim number 194 for the year.

Up to late yesterday, no arrests had been made in both murders and investigations are continuing.