BLOODY YEAR

According to reports, the killings triggered a meeting of senior police officers under Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams yesterday, but this could not be confirmed.

The killings also occurred as word came of a Cabinet retreat that was being planned by the Government on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. In his Christmas address to the nation, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley stated that crime prevention remained the Government’s highest priority.

“I and my Cabinet colleagues, along with the members of the National Security Council, the Police Service and the Defence Force, are taking all the necessary steps and exploring all the avenues that are available to us, to ensure the safety and comfort of the citizens of this country,” he said.

Friday night’s murders took place in Laventille, Enterprise and Caparo.

Five of the victims were shot while one was stabbed to death.

According to police, officers responded to the murder of Martin Subratie of Beverly Hills at around 10.30 pm on Friday. However, when they revisited the scene yesterday morning, officers received information from residents that there were three bodies in a nearby track. This was the fifth murder at Beverly Hills in three days as, on Thursday around 10 pm, 19-yearold Neil Frank was shot dead while his girlfriend was shot in her leg after the two were ambushed by gunmen.

When Sunday Newsday visited Beverly Hills yesterday, there were a few residents on their outside staircases chatting quietly among themselves. However, they were closed mouthed about the discovery of the four bullet-riddled bodies on their compound, saying only that they believed they heard what sounded like gunshots around 1 am.

The bodies found yesterday morning were identified as Shervon Ryan aka Crouch, and Andre Mitchell aka Eagle, both of Beverly Hills, and Sherwyn Balthazar aka Chuko of Maloney.

When their reluctance to talk about the men was remarked upon, one resident said, “Nobody really knows what’s going on. They don’t want to say the wrong thing. You have to be careful of what you say when you live in a place like this.” One of the few residents who spoke to Sunday Newsday was an elderly man, Dennis Charles, who said that, for several years, he had been asking the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) to relocate him. He said he paid $500 for the HDC to complete a search for another apartment but he has yet to receive a response. Charles’ desire to move seemed to be a popular sentiment among the people in the area as another resident stated that since Friday night, he noticed a number of his neighbours leaving the compound with large bags and suitcases. He assumed that they had moved out temporarily.

Chadda John, wife of Balthazar, said her husband of seven years was a community leader from Maloney.

He was employed at the Tunapuna/ Piarco Regional Corporation and owned several other businesses.

She described the father of four as a generous, loving, considerate individual who always gave of his best.

John said Balthazar left their Maloney home after 4 pm on Friday to lime with friends in Laventille.

However, she spoke to him on his cell phone at 7.24 pm when he told her he was “organising to come home.” But at 7.38 pm, Balthazar’s mother called John to say she could not get on to him. John said she knew something was wrong or would soon be wrong.

“I know death is a part of life,” she said. “I think it would have been easier to accept if it was a car accident or something like that but to die by a bullet... it’s hard.” This incident was just the latest of several multiple killings this year. Some of these murderous incidents include the murder of Selwyn “Robocop” Alexis, Kevin Escayg, of San Juan, and Thomas “Hamza” Sharpe on Sunday July 17. The men were killed during a daylight shootout at Robocop’s Enterprise, Chaguanas business place.

Leon Sobers and Joel Alexander died instantly on Tuesday, November 15 after being shot when a man on a bicycle approached them and shot at several men who were liming in their yard on Harper Circular, D’Abadie. Sobers’ son, Shavaughn Sobers was shot in the eye, was considered brain dead and later succumbed to his injuries.

Just a few days earlier, on Saturday November 5, Frank Joseph, his son Kevin Plaza and Ricardo Singh were killed in a drive by shooting on John Lane, D’Abadie.

When Sunday Newsday eventually contacted head of CID, Acting Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Boxhill, he said he was he did not wish to comment on the murders or this year’s murder rate as he did not “have the information in front of him”. He also said he was not aware of any meeting held by the Commissioner.